ESS is based on Olin Shivers' excellent comint package (which is supplied with version 19 of GNU Emacs).  The original version of ESS (then known as `S-mode') was written by Doug Bates (bates@stat.wisc.edu) and Ed Kademan (kademan@stat.wisc.edu).  Frank Ritter (ritter@psy.cmu.edu) then merged this version with his own S-mode mode to form S.el version 2.1.

Version 2.1 of S.el was then updated and expanded by David Smith to form version 3.4.  This was then updated for Emacs 19 to create version 4.  Most bugs have now been fixed (and several new ones introduced) and many new features have been added.  Thanks must go to the many people who have helped with the development of the present version of ESS:

  * The multiple process code, and the idea for ess-eval-line-and-next-line are by Rod Ball.

  * Thanks to Doug Bates for many useful suggestions, and an FTP home for the code.

  * Thanks to Martin Maechler for reporting and fixing bugs, providing many useful comments and suggestions, and for maintaining the S-mode mailing list.

  * Thanks to Frank Ritter for updates from the previous version, the menu code, and invaluable comments on the manual.

  * Thanks to Ken'ichi Shibayama for his excellent indenting code, and many comments and suggestions.

  * Last but definitely not least, thanks to the many beta testers of the S-mode and ESS mailing lists.

The new version, ESS version 5, is being developed and currently maintained by

     [file authors.texi not included]