TIBCO Spotfire S+
Enhanced Statistical Program Based on “S”
Table of Contents
S-PLUS Availability
- Faculty, staff, and students at the University of Virginia may access TIBCO Spotfire S+ (S-PLUS) in several different ways:
- Our site license for S-PLUS requires a different type of installation depending on
whether you are UVa faculty/staff or a UVa student.
- UVa faculty and staff should install the network version of S-PLUS on UVa-owned computers on-Grounds.
By special request, faculty and staff can get a copy of the “standalone” version of S-PLUS for installation off-Grounds or on a personally-owned computer. This restriction is necessary because we have a limited number of licenses for faculty and staff use, most of which are dedicated to enabling the simultaneous connections for the network version used both by individual faculty and staff and by the computers in the ITS public computing facilities and ITS UNIX servers. - UVa students must use the personal copy (standalone) of the software which may be installed either on- or off-Grounds on their personally-owned computer.
The software vendor, TIBCO, grants us an unlimited number of student copies based on the number of faculty/staff licenses we've purchased. In addition, the standalone version has an automatic expiration one year after installation.
- UVa faculty and staff should install the network version of S-PLUS on UVa-owned computers on-Grounds.
ITS Computer Labs
In all ITS computer labs and classrooms, S-PLUS 8.1 for Windows is installed on all Microsoft Windows machines. For a list of all labs and locations, visit the ITS Labs and Classrooms webpage.
On the UVa Hive
S-PLUS may be used virtually via the UVa Hive. When using S-PLUS through the Hive, it cannot be used for funded research or for online classes.
On a UNIX Workstation
S-PLUS 8.1 for UNIX/Linux is available at UVa for these platforms. It may be accessed by typing "splus" at the UNIX prompt. S-PLUS can be run either in a standard terminal session or in an X-windowed environment by typing “splus -g”. It will take several minutes before the GUI is displayed on your screen.
Mounting ITS Common Directories on an on-Grounds Linux Machine
S-PLUS and other ITS-licensed software, such as Matlab, MAPLE, Mathematica, and IDL are on a
server that handles any license restrictions (i.e., the number of simultaneous connections
allowed). To be able to mount the file systems /common and /linux, read the discussion at
http://its.virginia.edu/os/linux/mount.html.
Acquire a Copy for Your Own Computer
Faculty/Staff- All faculty and staff affiliated with the University of Virginia should use the network version of S-PLUS on UVa-owned computers on Grounds. This is a complete installation of S-PLUS that checks out a license from a license manager running on a central ITS server.
- The network version of S-PLUS for Windows can be obtained by download free of charge from the ITS licensing database.
- Instructions on first-time installation of the network Windows S-PLUS software and configuring your local workstation to communicate with the license manager are available online.
- Faculty and staff may access S-PLUS for Linux on-Grounds by mounting ITS common directories (see instructions above).
- Students must use the personal copy (standalone) of the software which may be installed either on- or off-Grounds. The standalone license version of S-PLUS version 8.0 can be obtained by students at no charge from ITS Research Computing at the Scholars' Lab in Alderman Library. Detailed installation instructions for the standalone Windows version of S-PLUS 8.0 are available online.
- S-PLUS standalone version license expires one year after the date of installation. If you are eligible, you may renew this license on an annual basis by installing the new version or if a new license code is available visiting our software registration website at web.virginia.edu/rescomp. If your S-PLUS is saying it's expired, please feel free to contact us about how to renew it.
S-PLUS Add-on Modules
There are four add-on modules for the statistical software, S-PLUS. Each must be licensed separately.
- S-PLUS EnvironmentalStats brings the major environmental statistical methods found in the literature and regulatory guidance documents into one statistical package, along with an extensive hypertext help system that explains what these methods do, how to use these methods, and where to find them in the environmental statistics literature. Also included are numerous built-in data sets from regulatory guidance documents and the environmental statistics literature.
- S-PLUS FinMetrics is an econometric analysis tool that offers a modern and flexible platform for financial data analysis. S+FinMetrics incorporates all of the essential analytics, from rolling regression and backtesting functions, to extreme value theory and time series analysis, in a single environment.
- S-PLUS SpatialStats is a comprehensive, object-oriented software package for the analysis of spatial data. SPLUS SpatialStats can be used to analyze data arising in areas such as environmental, mining and petroleum engineering, natural resources, geography, epidemiology, demography and others where data is sampled spatially.
- S-PLUS Wavelets applies robust wavelet analysis including discrete wavelet transformations, non-decimated wavelet transforms to advanced signal and image, time series, statistical signal and data compression analysis.
To learn more about the particular modules, please see the TIBCO website. Contact ITS Research Computing Support in the Scholars' Lab (434-243-8800) to learn how to obtain these separate modules and for answers to any installation questions or problems you have.
TIBCO Spotfire Miner
TIBCO Spotfire Miner is a separate standalone product for the Windows platform. It may be downloaded from the ITS licensing database.
More details including installation instructions are available at http://manuals.itc.virginia.edu/splus/iminer8.html
Getting Started with S-PLUS
Please review System Requirements on the TIBCO website first.
File types supported by S-PLUS include SAS 7, SAS 8, and Matlab files. For more information see the TIBCO S-PLUS site.
Getting Help with S-PLUS
If you have questions on usage, there are several options for helping yourself.
- Help from within S-PLUS:
- S-PLUS for Windows
S-PLUS has an extensive set of help features found under the Help option along the top menu bar in S-PLUS. Particularly helpful is the online manual set that can be browsed in .pdf format by selecting Help -- On-Line Manuals. - S-PLUS for UNIX
Make use of the extensive help system available with the S-PLUS program. After you have set your graphical user interface (see above), issue the command help.start( ). Close the help window with the command help.off( ). - Make use of the demo program. After you have invoked S-PLUS and set the graphics device (see above), type the command demo( ). Two graphics windows will appear, a window with the selection of demos 1-7 (0 to quit) and a window for the graphics display. When you have made your choice, follow any directions that appear in the selection window. Exit the demo program by typing 0 at the "Selection:" prompt.
- S-PLUS for Windows
- In UNIX, type man Splus to access the manual pages for S-PLUS.
- HELP: Additional help with S-PLUS can be obtained by contacting the statistical software consultants at ITS Research Computing at the Scholars' Lab in Alderman Library via email at res-consult@virginia.edu or telephone (434) 243-8800. Research Computing also has S-PLUS manuals which you may borrow for short periods of time.
Note Product Name Changes
Following TIBCO's acquisition of Insightful Corporation, the S-PLUS, S-PLUS Server and Insightful Miner products were renamed to TIBCO Spotfire S+, TIBCO Spotfire S+ Server, and TIBCO Spotfire Miner. Through integration of the Spotfire and S-PLUS language products, TIBCO is delivering a more comprehensive and powerful enterprise analytics platform, leveraging the strengths of visual and computational analytics to enable new collaborations between statistical experts and business professionals.
