-*- text -*-
ESS VERSION 5.0
------------------
This directory contains the distribution of ESS version 5.0, which
used to be S-mode. This is an Emacs-Lisp interface to interactive
statistical programming and data analysis languages, including: S
dialects (S 3, S 4, S-PLUS 3.x, S-PLUS 4.x and R), LispStat dialects
(XLispStat, ViSta), SAS, and SPSS dialects (SPSS, Fiasco).
Note that not all of these languages are currently supported by ESS,
or are even in beta versions at this stage. However, this is the long
term goal.
0. LICENSE
----------
ESS is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later
version.
ESS is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
in the file COPYING in the same directory as this file for more
details.
1. FEATURES
-----------
Languages Supported (or planned to be supported)
S dialects (S 3, S 4, S-PLUS 3.x, S-PLUS 4.x and R)
LispStat dialects (XLispStat, ViSta, Common LispStat(?))
SAS
SPSS dialects (SPSS, Fiasco)
Editing source code (S, LispStat, SAS)
Syntactic indentation and highlighting of source code
Partial evaluations of code
Loading and error-checking of code
Source code revision maintenance
Interacting with the process (S, LispStat, SAS)
Command-line editing
Searchable Command history
Command-line completion of S object names and file names
Quick access to object lists and search lists
Transcript recording
Interface to the help system
Transcript manipulation (S3, S+3, S4, R, XLispStat)
Recording and saving transcript files
Manipulating and editing saved transcripts
Re-evaluating commands from transcript files
See the accompanying manual ESS.texi for details of features of ESS.
See the file NEWS for changes in recent versions.
Future features include a language-independent data analysis UI (and
analysis GUI), as well as links with Literate Programming methodology.
2. REQUIREMENTS
---------------
ESS version 5.0 requires Emacs version 19.29 or later, or version
XEmacs 19.14 or later. ESS is supposed to work with any version of S,
S-PLUS, R, SAS, or XLispStat.
It has been most thoroughly tested with:
S-PLUS 3.3, R 0.49 and 0.50, XLispStat 3.50, S4, and SAS on
(when available) SunOS, Solaris, and Linux (Unix) systems;
Emacs 19.29, 19.34, XEmacs 19.16, XEmacs 20.3
It may need some work with other configurations.
3. STABILITY
------------
Version 5.0 is meant as a functional release. However, there are a
few known bugs (and countless other undiscovered ones); see the TODO
file for details. Bug reports are solicited; see the BUGS section
below. Fixes and patches with bug reports are appreciated!
4. INSTALLATION (AJR: NEEDS TO BE CHANGED!).
---------------
* cd to a directory where you keep emacs lisp files, or create a new
directory to hold the distribution. This directory will be referred
to below as "the ESS-5.0 distribution directory". It will contain,
at the end, the tar file ESS-5.0.tar.gz, and a directory for
the ESS source, which will be termed "the ESS-5.0 directory". Note
that the .elc files may be installed elsewhere (as specified in the
Makefile) if desired.
* Copy ESS-5.0.tar.gz to the location where you want the ESS-5.0
directory, and cd there. Extract the files from the distribution,
which will unpack into a subdirectory, ESS-5.0.
gunzip ESS-5.0.tar.gz
tar vxf ESS-5.0.tar
(or: gunzip < ESS-5.0.tar.gz | tar vxf - ).
(or using GNU tar: tar zvxf ESS-5.0.tar.gz).
The tar command will extract files into the current directory.
Do not create ESS-5.0 yourself, or you will get an extra level of
depth to your directory structure.
* Edit the file ess-site.el as explained in the comments section of
that file.
* In the ESS-5.0 directory, edit the file Makefile and then type:
make
make install
This will install the info files (and the lisp files, if they
are to go in another directory). Don't forget to edit the file
`dir' in the info directory specified by INFODIR in the Makefile.
* Add the line
(load "/PATH/ess-site")
to your .emacs file (or to default.el, for a site-wide
installation). Replace `/PATH' above with the value of
S-lisp-directory as defined in S-site.el.
* Start Emacs, and run S with:
M-x S
You should be asked for a pathname ("S starting data directory?");
enter /PATH as defined above.
After the S prompt appears, type M-x S-create-object-name-db. This
creates a database of object names (for completion purposes) in the
file S-namedb.el in the current S directory (i.e. /PATH). Check
that /PATH now contains a file called S-namedb.el.
If you wish to run R, you can start it with:
M-x R
XLispStat can be run with
M-x XLS
* That's it!
5. BUGS
-------
Please send bug reports, suggestions etc. to
ess-bugs@stat.math.ethz.ch
The easiest way to do this is within Emacs by typing
M-x ess-submit-bug-report
This also gives the maintainers valuable information about your
installation which may help us to identify or even fix the bug.
6. GETTING THE LATEST VERSION
-----------------------------
The latest stable version of ESS is always available by WWW from:
http://www.maths.lancs.ac.uk:2080/~maa036/elisp/S-mode/
ftp://wingra.stat.wisc.edu/pub/src/emacs-lisp/.
?? ftp://ftp.stat.wisc.edu/
?? ftp://franz.stat.wisc.edu/
The latest alpha version of ESS is available via WWW or FTP, and can be
found in the directory specified by:
http://www.stat.sc.edu/~rossini/projects/
ftp://ftp.math.sc.edu/rossini/
Documentation can be found at:
http://www.stat.math.ethz.ch/ESS/
7. THE ESS MAILING LIST
--------------------------
There is a mailing list for discussions and announcements relating to
ESS. Join the list by sending an e-mail with "subscribe ess"
(or "help") in the body to ess-request@stat.math.ethz.ch;
contributions to the list may be mailed to ess@stat.math.ethz.ch.
Rest assured, this is a fairly low-volume mailing list.
The purposes of the mailing list include
- helping users of ESS to get along with it.
- discussing aspects of using ESS for GNU Emacs and XEmacs.
- suggestions for improvements.
- announcements of new [beta] releases of ESS.
- posting small patches to ESS.
----
Richard M. Heiberger <rmh@fisher.stat.temple.edu>, Stat Dept., Temple U.
Kurt Hornik <hornik@ci.tuwien.ac.at> Stat. Dept., TU-Wien
Martin Maechler <maechler@stat.math.ethz.ch> Stat. Dept., ETHZ
A.J. Rossini <rossini@stat.sc.edu> Stat. Dept., U South Carolina