from : ​http://www.r-project.org/

Introduction

R is a language and environment for statistical computing and graphics. It is a GNU project which is similar to the S language and environment which was developed at Bell Laboratories (formerly AT&T, now Lucent Technologies) by John Chambers and colleagues. R can be considered as a different implementation of S. There are some important differences, but much code written for S runs unaltered under R.
R 是一種用在統計計算及繪圖的語言及環境，它是 GNU project，且非常類似 S 語言，它由 Bell Laboratories 開發。你可以把它想像成只是 S 不一樣的實作方法。它和 S 有些重大的不同，但大多數可以由 S 寫的程式碼依舊能在 R 上執行。

R provides a wide variety of statistical (linear and nonlinear modelling, classical statistical tests, time-series analysis, classification, clustering, ...) and graphical techniques, and is highly extensible. The S language is often the vehicle of choice for research in statistical methodology, and R provides an Open Source route to participation in that activity.
R 提供了多種統計的 (線性及非線性模組，典型的統計測試，時間序列分析，分數，群) 和繪圖的技術，並且具高度可擴充性。S 語言是一種用在統計方法研究的選擇，R 提供一個開放源碼來參與此活動。

One of R's strengths is the ease with which well-designed publication-quality plots can be produced, including mathematical symbols and formulae where needed. Great care has been taken over the defaults for the minor design choices in graphics, but the user retains full control.
R 的其中一個長處是生產出設計良好的出版品，包括數所需的學符號與公式，大部份要注意的東西已經被預設以少量設計的圖形選擇處理，但使用者仍完全掌控。

R is available as Free Software under the terms of the Free Software Foundation's GNU General Public License in source code form. It compiles and runs on a wide variety of UNIX platforms and similar systems (including FreeBSD and Linux), Windows and MacOS.
R 是自由軟體，在自由軟體基會的 GNU 通用公共許可證，以源代碼的型式，它被編譯且運行在各式各樣的 UNIX 平臺及相似系統 (包括 freeBSD 和 Linux) ，windows 和 MacOS.

The R environment

R is an integrated suite of software facilities for data manipulation, calculation and graphical display. It includes

• an effective data handling and storage facility,
• a suite of operators for calculations on arrays, in particular matrices,
• a large, coherent, integrated collection of intermediate tools for data analysis,
• graphical facilities for data analysis and display either on-screen or on hardcopy, and
• a well-developed, simple and effective programming language which includes conditionals, loops, user-defined recursive functions and input and output facilities.
  

R 是一個有數據處理、計算和圖形顯示的綜合的套裝軟體工具，它包含：

• 一個有效的資料操作及儲存工具。
• 一套用在特別的矩陣，計算陣列的運算符號。
• 大量，易懂，整合收集資料分析的中介軟體。
• 資料分析的圖形工具，可以將結果繪成圖表後顯示在螢幕或存成文件(hardcopy)
• 一個發展良好，簡單且有效的程式語言，其包含條件判斷、迴圈、使用者自訂的遞迴式子及輸入輸出的工具。

The term "environment" is intended to characterize it as a fully planned and coherent system, rather than an incremental accretion of very specific and inflexible tools, as is frequently the case with other data analysis software.

R, like S, is designed around a true computer language, and it allows users to add additional functionality by defining new functions. Much of the system is itself written in the R dialect of S, which makes it easy for users to follow the algorithmic choices made. For computationally-intensive tasks, C, C++ and Fortran code can be linked and called at run time. Advanced users can write C code to manipulate R objects directly.

Many users think of R as a statistics system. We prefer to think of it of an environment within which statistical techniques are implemented. R can be extended (easily) via packages. There are about eight packages supplied with the R distribution and many more are available through the CRAN family of Internet sites covering a very wide range of modern statistics.

R has its own LaTeX-like documentation format, which is used to supply comprehensive documentation, both on-line in a number of formats and in hardcopy.