  * 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 distribution directory".  It will contain, at the end, the tar file ESS-5.1.4.tar.gz, and a directory for the ESS source, which will be termed "the ESS-5.1.4 source directory". Note that the .elc files may be installed elsewhere (as specified in the Makefile) if desired.

  * Retrieve the compressed tar file from one of the FTP or WWW archive sites via FTP (or HTTP).

  * Copy ESS-5.1.4.tar.gz to the location where you want the ESS-5.1.3 directory, and cd there.  Extract the files from the distribution, which will unpack into a subdirectory, ESS-5.1.4.

     gunzip ESS-5.1.4.tar.gz tar vxf ESS-5.1.4.tar

     (or: gunzip < ESS-5.1.4.tar.gz | tar vxf - ). (or using GNU tar:  tar zvxf ESS-5.1.4.tar.gz).

     The tar command will extract files into the current directory.

     Do not create ESS-5.1.4 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.  Installations that are using ESS only for S-plus 3.x will probably not need to make any changes.  Installations that also have one or more of (S4 R SAS XLispStat Stata) will need to uncomment corresponding lines in ess-site.el.

  * READ THIS ITEM THOROUGHLY BEFORE STARTING:

     In the ESS-5.1.4 directory, edit the file Makefile (only if you want to place the executables in other locations; see LISPDIR and INFODIR) 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. See the sample `dir' file for an example of the line to add.

     If you are using XEmacs, you might do:

     make EMACS=xemacs make EMACS=xemacs install

     instead of editing the Makefile.

     An alternative, if you are running XEmacs and have access to the XEmacs system directories, would be to place the directory in the site-lisp directory, and simply type "make"  (and copy the documentation as appropriate).

     For Emacs, you would still have to move the files into the top level site-lisp directory.

  * Add the line

     (load "/PATH/ess-site")

     to your .emacs file (or default.el or site-init.el, for a site-wide installation).  Replace `/PATH' above with the value of ess-lisp-directory as defined in ess-site.el.

     Alternatively, if ess-site.el is in your current Lisp path, you can do:

     (require 'ess-site)

     to configure Emacs for ESS.

  * (OPTIONAL) If you are running S-PLUS or R, you might consider installing the database files.  From within (X)Emacs, "C-x d" to the directory containing ESS.  Now:

     M-x S+3 (get running.  once you have reached the SPLUS 3.x prompt, do:) M-x ess-create-object-name-db (this will create the file: ess-s+3-namedb.el; if it isn't in the ESS directory, move it there).

     Then, completions will be autoloaded and will not be regenerated for every session.

     For R: M-x R (get running.  once you have reached the R prompt, do:) M-x ess-create-object-name-db (this will create the file: ess-r-namedb.el; if it isn't in the ESS directory, move it there).

  * For more information on using ESS in your daily work, see the files README.S, README.SAS, and README.XLispStat.

     For the impatient, the quick version of usage follows:

  * To edit statistical programs, load the files with the requiste extensions  (".sas" for SAS, ".S" for S-PLUS, ".R" for R, and ".lsp" for XLispStat).

  * To run statistical processes under (X)Emacs:

     Run S-PLUS 3.x with:

     M-x S+3

     (or M-x S  using backwards compatibility).  You will then be asked for a pathname ("S starting data directory?"), from which to start the process.

     If you wish to run R, you can start it with:

     M-x R

     XLispStat can be run with

     M-x XLS

     SAS can be run with:

     M-x SAS

  * That's it!