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Splus Version Compatibility

Ted Chang (tcc8v@virginia.edu)
Department of Statistics
University of Virginia

We now have 3 versions of splus available: version 3.4, 5.1, and 6.0. I have done some comparative simulations and have come up with the following run times:

Splus 3.4 26hrs 56min
Splus 5.1 71hrs 04min
Splus 6.0 43hrs 26min

In view of these experiments, ITC has kindly consented to keep version 3.4 running indefinitely. The current latest version for AIX is 5.1, so 5.1 will also be kept on the solaris systems. However, we are curious if there are any other reasons to keep 5.1.

As a result of my experiments, I have the following observations about compatibility between the versions of Splus.

In Splus version 3.4, it is often convenient to have a separate .Data directory for each of your projects. This is done by putting each of your projects in a separate UNIX directory and creating a subdirectory .Data within each of the UNIX directories. Also, in my research, it is convenient to link FORTRAN programs within Splus. If the .o file for the programs is mystuff.o, this is done using the command (from within Splus) dyn.load("mystuff.o"). I believe a similar procedure is available for C programs.

In Splus versions 5.1 and later, to get a .Data directory from within your UNIX directory, you run the command Splus CHAPTER at the UNIX prompt from within the desired directory. This will create a .Data directory and a file called makefile. Then if you run the instruction (once) Splus make at the UNIX prompt, all FORTRAN programs (identified by a .f or .o extension) located within your directory will be automatically linked into Splus each time in the future you run Splus. In my case I keep a lot of FORTRAN programs, such as old versions, which I don't want linked with Splus and this can be accomplished by editing the file makefile. I think C programs are similarly handled.

I have found that Splus objects created by version 3.4 are readable by versions 5.1 and 6.0, but not vice versa. I have also found that if I save my random number seeds, the random number sequences generated by all 3 versions coincide.

For Splus run instructions, see the Department Software page.