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<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px"><b><span style="font-size: large"><span id="History" class="mw-headline">History</span></span></b></p>

<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px">S is one of several statistical computing languages that were designed at Bell Laboratories, and first took form between 1975&ndash;1976.<sup id="cite_ref-Becker_1-0" class="reference" style="font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; line-height: 1"><a style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; white-space: nowrap; color: rgb(11,0,128)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S_(programming_language)#cite_note-Becker-1"><span>[</span>1<span>]</span></a></sup><span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span>Up to that time, much of the statistical computing was done by directly calling<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span><a title="Fortran" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; color: rgb(11,0,128)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortran">Fortran</a><span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span>subroutines; however, S was designed to offer an alternate and more interactive approach. Early design decisions that hold even today include interactive graphics devices (printers and character terminals at the time), and providing easily accessible documentation for the functions.</p>

<p style="margin: 0.5em 0px">The first working version of S was built in 1976, and operated on the<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span><a title="General Comprehensive Operating System" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; color: rgb(11,0,128)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Comprehensive_Operating_System">GCOS</a><span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span>operating system. At this time, S was unnamed, and suggestions included<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span><i>Interactive SCS (ISCS)</i>,<i>Statistical Computing System</i>, and<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span><i>Statistical Analysis System</i><span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span>(which was already taken: see<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span><a title="SAS System" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; color: rgb(11,0,128)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAS_System">SAS System</a>). The name 'S' (used with single quotation marks, until 1979) was chosen, as it has the common letter used in statistical computing, and is consistent with other programming languages designed from the same institution at the time (namely the<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span><a title="C (programming language)" style="text-decoration: none; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; color: rgb(11,0,128)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_(programming_language)">C programming language</a>).</p>