Data objects, memory, and speed

• in R, all objects are saved together in a single file, .Rdata, in the current directory. The objects are loaded into memory when R is started, hence the delay when R is invoked, but also hence some of R's speed relative to Splus. To save the objects at the end of a session, answer 'y' to the question, 'save workspace image?'. Answer 'n' to start fresh. I generally do not save my objects, just saving the code that recreates them; this avoids having multiple copies of data. If you want to save the objects/session without quitting, do >save.image(filename)
• Splus: in Linux, each object is stored as a separate file in the .Data directory. If there's no .Data in the current directory, the default is $HOME/MySwork/.Data. To create a .Data directory, run >Splus CHAPTER from the directory in which you want .Data placed. Splus does not load the objects into memory when invoked, so there is no delay, but as a result the objects are not in memory when you run commands.