| PackageDescription | GNU R statistical computation and graphics system
R is a system for statistical computation and graphics. It consists
of a language plus a run-time environment with graphics, a debugger,
access to certain system functions, and the ability to run programs
stored in script files.
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The design of R has been heavily influenced by two existing languages:
Becker, Chambers & Wilks' S and Sussman's Scheme. Whereas the
resulting language is very similar in appearance to S, the underlying
implementation and semantics are derived from Scheme.
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The core of R is an interpreted computer language which allows
branching and looping as well as modular programming using functions.
Most of the user-visible functions in R are written in R. It is
possible for the user to interface to procedures written in the
C, C++, or FORTRAN languages for efficiency, and many of R's core
functions do so. The R distribution contains functionality for a
large number of statistical procedures and underlying applied math
computations. There is also a large set of functions which provide
a flexible graphical environment for creating various kinds of data
presentations.
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Additionally, several thousand extension "packages" are available from
CRAN, the Comprehensive R Archive Network, many also as Debian packages,
named 'r-cran-<name>'.
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This package is a metapackage which eases the transition from the
pre-1.5.0 package setup with its larger r-base package. Once installed, it
can be safely removed and apt-get will automatically upgrade its components
during future upgrades. Providing this package gives a way to users to
then only install r-base-core if they so desire. |