What are the major differences between the R and S programming languages?

Question

What are the differences between R and S?

Answer 1

The R FAQ does a decent job answering this question:

• What are the differences between R and S?

We can regard S as a language with three current implementations or “engines”, the “old S engine” (S version 3; S-Plus 3.x and 4.x), the “new S engine” (S version 4; S-Plus 5.x and above), and R. Given this understanding, asking for “the differences between R and S” really amounts to asking for the specifics of the R implementation of the S language, i.e., the difference between the R and S engines.

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