R is an open source software environment for statistical computing and graphics. R compiles and runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and numerous UNIX platforms such as Linux. R software project by first started by Robert Gentleman and Ross Ihaka. It has a worldwide repository system, the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN) - http://cran.r-project.org for user-contributed add-on packages to supplement the base distribution. R is much more than just its core language. R is freely available under the GNU General Public License, and pre-compiled binary versions are provided for various operating systems like Linux, Windows, and Mac.
As stated earlier, R is a programming language and software environment for statistical analysis, graphics representation, and reporting.
R (Programming Language)
History of R
1. R is an implementation of the S programming language with lexical scoping semantics inspired by a scheme.
2. S was created by John Chamber while at Bell Labs.
Features of R
These are the following most important of R:
1. A console for issuing commands.
2. R is a well developed, simple and effective programming language which includes conditionals; loops; user defined recursive functions and input and output facilities.
3. R has an effective data handling and storage facility.
4. R provides a suite of operators for calculation on arrays, lists, vectors, and matrices.
5. R provides a large, coherent and integrated collection of tools for data analysis.
6. R provides graphical facilities for data analysis and display either directly at the computer or printing at the papers.
Advantages of R
1. It is the most comprehensive statistical analysis package available
2. It is free and open source software, allowing anyone to use.
3. R is licensed under GNU (General Public Licence) with copyright held by the R foundation for statistical computing.
4. It is cross-platform.
5. R runs on many operating systems and different hardware.
