[ < ] [ > ]   [ << ] [ Up ] [ >> ]         [Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

1. General Information: README

($Revision: 1.21 $, for ESS version 5.1.20)

This is the README file for the distribution of ESS version 5.1.20, the gamma series we are using on the way to producing 5.2 (the next stable distribution). ESS is an Emacs-Lisp interface for interactive statistical programming and data analysis. Languages supported include: S dialects (S 3/4, S-PLUS 3.x, and R), LispStat dialects (XLispStat, ViSta), and SAS. Stata and SPSS dialect (SPSS, PSPP) support is being examined for possible future implementation (a preliminary Stata mode is distributed).

Installation help can be found in sections for Unix Installation or Windows Installion

ESS grew out of the desire for bug fixes and extensions to S-mode-4.8. In particular, XEmacs support as well as extensions to incorporate R were desired. In addition, with new modes being developed for R, Stata, and SAS, it was felt that providing for a unifying framework would eliminate differences in the user interface, as well as to provide for faster development of production tools and statistical analysis. 5.1.x has, for its guts, the basic framework from S-mode. However, it has been cleaned, streamlined, brought closer to conformance as a standard GNU Emacs package, and redesigned for modularity and reuse.

The current development team is led by A.J. (Tony) Rossini (rossini@biostat.washington.edu), who did the initial port to XEmacs and has been the primary coder. Martin Maechler (maechler@stat.math.ethz.ch) and Kurt Hornik (hornik@ci.tuwien.ac.at) have assisted with S-PLUS, S4, R, and XLispStat sub-modes, and Richard M. Heiberger (rmh@fisher.stat.temple.edu) has assisted with S-PLUS (under MS Windows and remote access) and S4 development. Richard and Rodney Sparapani (rsparapa@mcw.edu) have done much of the work for implementing the SAS sub-mode. Douglas Bates (bates@stat.wisc.edu) contributed the initial S4 mode.

We are grateful to David M. Smith, the previous developer (for S-mode 3.x and 4.x), as well as to the initial developers of S-mode, Doug Bates, Ed Kademan and Frank Ritter.

In addition, some of the code has been and will be borrowed from Tom Cook (from his excellent SAS mode) and Thomas Lumley (preliminary Stata mode), gratefully (from us) and with permission (from them).

The name is ESS. Not ESS-mode.

1.1 License  
1.2 New Features  
1.3 Current Features  
1.4 Stability  
1.5 Requirements  
1.6 Getting the Latest Version  
1.7 Installation (from tar file)  
1.10 Reporting Bugs  
1.11 Mailing Lists  
1.12 Authors  


[ < ] [ > ]   [ << ] [ Up ] [ >> ]         [Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

1.1 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.


[ < ] [ > ]   [ << ] [ Up ] [ >> ]         [Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

1.2 New Features

Changes/New Features in 5.1.20:

Changes/New Features in 5.1.19:

Changes/New Features in 5.1.18:

Changes/New Features in 5.1.17:

Changes/New Features in 5.1.16:

Changes/New Features in 5.1.15:

Changes/New Features in 5.1.14:

Changes/New Features in 5.1.13:

Changes/New Features in 5.1.12:

Changes/New Features in 5.1.11:

Changes/New Features in 5.1.10:

Changes/New Features in 5.1.9:

Changes/New Features in 5.1.8:

Changes/New Features in 5.1.2:


[ < ] [ > ]   [ << ] [ Up ] [ >> ]         [Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

1.3 Current Features


[ < ] [ > ]   [ << ] [ Up ] [ >> ]         [Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

1.4 Stability

Versions 5.1.x are meant to be gamma-level releases. While some bugs are fixed, others may have been introduced, especially with regards to new features. See the file doc/TODO for details. Bug reports are solicited; see the Bugs Section below. Patches or suggested coding fixes with bug reports are much appreciated!


[ < ] [ > ]   [ << ] [ Up ] [ >> ]         [Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

1.5 Requirements

ESS version 5.1.n (n >= 2) requires Emacs version 19.34(1) or later, or version XEmacs 19.14 or later. It has been most thoroughly tested with:

on the following platforms

with the following versions of emacs


[ < ] [ > ]   [ << ] [ Up ] [ >> ]         [Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

1.6 Getting the Latest Version

The latest stable version of ESS is always available on the web at: http://software.biostat.washington.edu/statsoft/ess/ or http://lib.stat.cmu.edu/general/ESS/


[ < ] [ > ]   [ << ] [ Up ] [ >> ]         [Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

1.7 Installation (from tar file)

We now discuss installation, which might happen under Unix or Microsoft Windows. First, we discuss Unix installation. See section 1.8 Unix installation.

For Microsoft Windows Installation please skip to the See section 1.9 Microsoft Windows installation.


[ < ] [ > ]   [ << ] [ Up ] [ >> ]         [Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

1.8 Unix installation

  1. 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-5.1.20.tar.gz', and a directory for the ESS source, which will be termed "the ESS-5.1.20 source directory".

    Note that the .elc files may be installed elsewhere (as specified in the Makefile) if desired.

  2. Retrieve the gzipped tar file or zipped file from http://software.biostat.washington.edu/statsoft/ess/essDL
  3. Copy `ess-5.1.20.tar.gz' to the location where you want the ESS-5.1.20 directory, and cd there. Extract the files from the distribution, which will unpack into a subdirectory, ess-5.1.20.
     
    	gunzip ess-5.1.20.tar.gz
    	tar vxf ess-5.1.20.tar
    
    (or: gunzip < ess-5.1.20.tar.gz | tar vxf - ). (or using GNU tar: tar zvxf ess-5.1.20.tar.gz).

    The tar command will extract files into the current directory. Do not create ess-5.1.20 yourself, or you will get an extra level of depth to your directory structure.

    Note if you have a very ancient version of GNU emacs (and really can not upgrade to Emacs 20 or higher!) you can unpack the `lisp/19.29.tar.gz' file, read the ensuing `lisp/19.29/README' and you may succeed...

  4. Edit the file `lisp/ess-site.el' as explained in the comments section of that file. Installations that are using ESS only for S-Plus 6.x will probably not need to make any changes. Installations that also have one or more of (S+5 S4 S+4 S+3 R SAS XLispStat Stata) may need to uncomment corresponding lines in `ess-site.el'.
  5. READ THIS ITEM THOROUGHLY BEFORE STARTING:

    In the ess-5.1.20 directory, edit the file `Makeconf' (only if you want to place the executables in other locations; see LISPDIR and INFODIR) and then type:
     
    	make
    

    If this works, then you might try:
     
    	make install
    
    Note that the latter does the former as well, so if you are feeling lucky, you might want to skip it.

    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 `doc/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
    

    and then
     
    	make EMACS=xemacs install
    
    instead of editing the Makefile.

    Note that you might need to use GNU make for everything to work properly

    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.

  6. 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.

  7. (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+6
    
    (or M-x S+5: get running. once you have reached the SPLUS prompt, do:)
     
           M-x ess-create-object-name-db
    
    (this will create the file `ess-s+6-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, do the same, using
     
          M-x R
    
    and then M-x ess-create-object-name-db creating `ess-r-namedb.el'; if it isn't in the ESS directory, move it there).

  8. 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:

  9. 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).
  10. To run statistical processes under (X)Emacs:

    Run S-PLUS 6.x with:
     
    	M-x S+6
    
    (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. Similarly for S-PLUS 5.x.

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

    XLispStat can be run with
     
    	M-x XLS
    

    An interactive SAS can be run in an iESS[SAS] buffer with:
     
    	M-x SAS
    
    This works when SAS is running on a Unix machine, either the local machine or over a network connection. M-x SAS does not work when SAS is running on a Windows machine.

  11. That's it!


[ < ] [ > ]   [ << ] [ Up ] [ >> ]         [Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

1.9 Microsoft Windows installation

For Microsoft Windows installation, please follow the next steps: (see separate instructions above for UNIX See section 1.8 Unix installation.

  1. cd to a directory where you keep emacs lisp files, or create a new directory (for example, `c:\emacs\') to hold the distribution. This directory will be referred to below as "the ESS distribution directory". It will contain, at the end, either the tar file `ess-5.1.20.tar.gz' or the zip file `ess-5.1.20.zip', and a directory for the ESS source, which will be termed "the ESS-5.1.20 source directory".

  2. Retrieve the compressed tar file `ess-5.1.20.tar.gz' or the zipped file `ess-5.1.20.zip' from one of the FTP or WWW archive sites via FTP (or HTTP). Be aware that http browsers on Windows frequently change the "." and "-" characters in filenames to other punctuation. Please change the names back to their original form.

  3. Copy `ess-5.1.20.tar.gz' to the location where you want the ess-5.1.20 directory, for example to `c:\emacs\ess-5.1.20.tar.gz', and cd there. For example,

     
                 cd c:\emacs
    

    Extract the files from the distribution, which will unpack into a subdirectory, `ess-5.1.20'.
     
              	gunzip ess-5.1.20.tar.gz
              	tar vxf ess-5.1.20.tar
    
    (or: gunzip < ess-5.1.20.tar.gz | tar vxf - ). (or: from the zip file: unzip ess-5.1.20.zip)

    The tar command will extract files into the current directory.

    Do not create `ess-5.1.20' yourself, or you will get an extra level of depth to your directory structure.

  4. Windows users will usually be able to use the `lisp/ess-site.el' as distributed. Only rarely will changes be needed.
  5. Windows users will need to make sure that the directories for the software they will be using is in the PATH environment variable. On Windows 9x, add lines similar to the following to your `c:\autoexec.bat' file:
     
             path=%PATH%;c:\progra~1\spls2000\cmd
    
    On Windows NT/2000, add the directories to the PATH using the MyComputer menu. Note that the directory containing the program is added to the PATH, not the program itself. One such line is needed for each software program. Be sure to use the abbreviation progra~1 and not the long version with embedded blanks. Use backslashes "\".

  6. Add the line
     
                (load "/PATH/ess-site")
    
    to your .emacs (or _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'. Use forwardslashes /.

  7. (OPTIONAL) If you are running Sqpe or R, you might consider installing the database files. From within (X)Emacs, C-x d to the directory containing ESS. Now:
     
                     M-x Sqpe+6
    
    (get running. once you have reached the SPLUS prompt, do:)
     
                     M-x ess-create-object-name-db
    
    (this will create the file `ess-s+6-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, do the same, using
     
                    M-x R
    
    and then M-x ess-create-object-name-db creating `ess-r-namedb.el'; if it isn't in the ESS directory, move it there).

  8. For more information on using ESS in your daily work, see the files doc/README.SPLUS4WIN, doc/README.S, doc/README.SAS, and doc/README.XLispStat.

    For the impatient, the quick version of usage follows:

  9. To edit statistical programs, load the files with the requisite extensions (".sas" for SAS, ".S" or "s" or "q" or "Q" for S-PLUS, ".r" or ".R" for R, and ".lsp" for XLispStat).

  10. To run statistical processes under (X)Emacs:

    Run S-PLUS 6.x or 2000 with:
     
              	M-x S+6
    
    (or M-x S). You will then be asked for a pathname ("S starting data directory?"), from which to start the process. The prompt will propose your current directory as the default. Similarly for S-PLUS 6.x. Send lines or regions from the emacs buffer containing your S program (for example, `myfile.s') to the S-Plus Commands Window with the C-c C-n or C-c C-r keys.

    Run S-PLUS 6.x or 2000 inside an emacs buffer
     
              	M-x Sqpe+6
    
    You will then be asked for a pathname ("S starting data directory?"), from which to start the process. The prompt will propose your current directory as the default. Similarly for S-PLUS 6.x. Send lines or regions from the emacs buffer containing your S program (for example, `myfile.s') to the *S+6* buffer with the C-c C-n or C-c C-r keys. You do not have access to interactive graphics in this mode. You get Unix-like behavior, in particular the entire transcript is available for emacs-style search commands.

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

    XLispStat can not currently be run with
     
              	M-x XLS
    
    Hopefully, this will change. However, you can still edit with Emacs, and cut and paste the results into the XLispStat *Listener* Window under Microsoft Windows.

    SAS for Windows uses the batch access with function keys that is described in `doc/README.SAS'. The user can also edit SAS files in an ESS[SAS] buffer and than manually copy and paste them into an Editor window in the SAS Display Manager.

    For Windows, inferior SAS in an iESS[SAS] buffer does not work on the local machine. It does work over a network connection to SAS running on a remote Unix computer.

    Reason: we use ddeclient to interface with programs and SAS doesn't provide the corresponding ddeserver capability.

  11. That's it!


[ < ] [ > ]   [ << ] [ Up ] [ >> ]         [Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

1.10 Reporting 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.

Note that comments, suggestions, words of praise and large cash donations are also more than welcome.


[ < ] [ > ]   [ << ] [ Up ] [ >> ]         [Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

1.11 Mailing Lists

There is a mailing list for discussions and announcements relating to ESS. Join the list by sending an e-mail with "subscribe ess-help" (or "help") in the body to ess-help-request@stat.math.ethz.ch; contributions to the list may be mailed to ess-help@stat.math.ethz.ch. Rest assured, this is a fairly low-volume mailing list.

The purposes of the mailing list include


[ < ] [ > ]   [ << ] [ Up ] [ >> ]         [Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

1.12 Authors


[Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

Footnotes

(1)

if you have Emacs 19.29, you may get it to work after unpacking `19.29.tar.gz', see the installation instructions


[Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

Table of Contents

1. General Information: README
1.1 License
1.2 New Features
1.3 Current Features
1.4 Stability
1.5 Requirements
1.6 Getting the Latest Version
1.7 Installation (from tar file)
1.8 Unix installation
1.9 Microsoft Windows installation
1.10 Reporting Bugs
1.11 Mailing Lists
1.12 Authors

[Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

Short Table of Contents

1. General Information: README

[Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

About this document

This document was generated using texi2html

The buttons in the navigation panels have the following meaning:

Button Name Go to From 1.2.3 go to
[ < ] Back previous section in reading order 1.2.2
[ > ] Forward next section in reading order 1.2.4
[ << ] FastBack previous or up-and-previous section 1.1
[ Up ] Up up section 1.2
[ >> ] FastForward next or up-and-next section 1.3
[Top] Top cover (top) of document  
[Contents] Contents table of contents  
[Index] Index concept index  
[ ? ] About this page  

where the Example assumes that the current position is at Subsubsection One-Two-Three of a document of the following structure:

This document was generated by Camm Maguire on March, 4 2002 using texi2html