Message-ID: <CANVKczNSrz-imi01Rxsph3p4y_N2OMEFHcKAdH+W4E-qMCJh1w@mail.gmail.com>
Date: 2016-02-29T18:54:40Z
From: Barry Rowlingson
Subject: Source code of early S versions
In-Reply-To: <cd82998773964e899c6cd4a1a947a8b8@EX-0-HT0.lancs.local>
On Mon, Feb 29, 2016 at 6:17 PM, John Chambers <jmc at r-project.org> wrote:
> The Wikipedia statement may be a bit misleading.
>
> S was never open source. Source versions would only have been available with a nondisclosure agreement, and relatively few copies would have been distributed in source. There was a small but valuable "beta test" network, mainly university statistics departments.
So it was free (or at least distribution cost only), but with a
nondisclosure agreement? Did binaries circulate freely, legally or
otherwise? Okay, guess I'll read the book.
I'm sure I saw S source early in my career (1990 or so), possibly on
an early Sun 3/60 system or even the on-the-way-out Whitechapel MG-1
workstations.
> And two shameless plugs:
>
> 1. there is a chapter on the history of all this in my forthcoming book on "Extending R"
That will sit nicely on the shelf next to "Extending The S System"
that Allan Wilks gave me :)
> PS: somehow "historical" would be less unnerving than "archeological"
At least I didn't say palaeontological.
Thanks for the response.
Barry