S-PLUS was a commercial implementation of the S programming language sold by TIBCO Software Inc.
It features object-oriented programming capabilities and advanced analytical algorithms. Its statistical analysis capabilities are commonly used by econometricians. The S-PLUS FinMetrics software package was developed for econometric time series analysis.
Due to the increasing popularity of the open source S successor R, TIBCO Software released the TIBCO Enterprise Runtime for R (TERR) as an alternative R interpreter. It is available on Windows and UNIX operating systems.
Historical timeline
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In 1988, S-PLUS was first developed and released by a Seattle-based start-up company called Statistical Sciences, Inc. The company's founder and sole owner was R. Douglas Martin, professor of statistics at the University of Washington, Seattle. Martin originally learned S while working at Bell Laboratories, where the S language was originally developed. At the time of its release, S-PLUS was one of the first examples of software that implemented algorithms for generalized linear models, second to GLIM.
Statistical Sciences acquired the exclusive license to distribute S and merged with MathSoft in 1993, becoming the firm's Data Analysis Products Division (DAPD).
In 1995, S-PLUS 3.3 for Windows 95/NT was released, including the Matrix library, command history capability, and Trellis graphics. This was followed by the release of S-PLUS 3.4 for UNIX in 1996. This version included a non-linear mixed-effects modeling library, hexagonal binning, and cluster methods. S-PLUS 4 was released for Windows in 1997, with features such as an updated GUI, integration with Excel, and editable graphics. S-PLUS 4.5 for Windows in 1998, with Scatterplot brushing, and the ability to create S-PLUS graphs from within Excel & SPSS. The software also became available for Linux & Solaris.
In 1999, S-PLUS 5 was released for Solaris, Linux, HP-UX, AIX, IRIX, and DEC Alpha. S-PLUS 2000 for Windows. 3.3, quality control charting, and new commands for data manipulation. This was followed by S-PLUS 6 for Linux/Unix in 2000. This version had a Java-based GUI, Graphlets, survival5, and a library for handling missing data.
In 2001, MathSoft sold its Cambridge-based Engineering and Education Products Division (EEPD), was renamed Insightful Corporation, and moved headquarters to Seattle. This essentially reversed the previous merger between MathSoft and Statistical Sciences, Inc.MATHSOFT SELLS ENGINEERING AND EDUCATION PRODUCTS DIVISION; COMPANY APPOINTS NEW CEO AND CHANGES NAME TO INSIGHTFUL S-PLUS Analytic Server 2.0. S-PLUS 6 was released for Windows in 2001.
In 2002, StatServer 6 was released and the student edition of S-PLUS became free. S-PLUS 6.2 was released and ported to AIX. In 2004, Insightful purchased the S language from Lucent Technologies for $2 million, and released S+ArrayAnalyzer 2.0.
S-PLUS 7.0 was released in 2005, including the BigData library for working with larger-than-memory data sets and the S-PLUS Workbench (Eclipse development tool). Insightful Miner 7.0 was also released. In 2007, S-PLUS 8 was released with a new package system, language extensions for R package compatibility, and a workbench debugger.
TIBCO acquired Insightful Corporation for $25 million in 2008.TIBCO Completes Acquisition of Insightful Corporation, press release, TIBCO Software Inc., September 3, 2008.
On 31st January 2026, TIBCO officially retired the product.
See also R programming language
References