Emacs Speaks Statistics

Infobox_Software
name = Emacs Speaks Statistics



caption = Gnu emacs in ESS and iESS mode. In the upper window, S code is edited in emacs' ESS mode. In the lower window the S code is executed by R via iESS.
latest_release_version = 5.3.4
genre = statistical analysis
license=GPL
website = [http://ess.r-project.org/ ess.r-project.org]

Emacs Speaks Statistics (ESS) is an emacs package. It adds two major modes to emacs: (1) ESS mode for editing statistical languages like S; and (2) inferior ESS (iESS) mode for interacting with statistical processes like S-PLUS or R.

With Emacs Speaks Statistics, one can conveniently edit statistical language commands in one emacs buffer, and execute the code in a second. There are a number of advantages of doing data analysis using emacs/ESS in this way, rather than interacting with R, S-PLUS or other software directly. First, as indicated above, ESS provides a convenient way of writing and executing code without frequently switching between programs. This also encourages the good practice of keeping a record of one's data analysis, equivalent to working from do-files in Stata. Third, since emacs is also an able editor of LaTeX files, it facilitates the integration of data analysis and written text with Sweave.

ESS is freely available for download from [http://ess.r-project.org/ the ESS website] , which also contains documentation and links to a mailing list.