Title: you may be served better by other books
Product review: Much of the text appears as if the authors wanted to put information on paper and get it published, without regard to the readability or clarity of the text. The information in this text is largely good information. I have used a lot of it. However, you can get most of the same information elsewhere without having to "read between the lines" (and without all those damned footnotes!!). For example, a MUCH better and more comprehensive book is Programming with Data: A Guide to the S Language (1998) by Chambers (Springer): Chambers defines terms before using them, illustrates concepts with simple examples before moving to complex examples, and gives overviews of ideas prior to more extensive chapters. All of that is routinely missing in Venables and Ripley (V&R). Thus, even if you buy V&R to learn more about programming in S, it almost cannot be your sole reference, which is unfortunate and misleading given its title.
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