Statistical Computing Environments: Past, Present and Future

Interest in statistical use of computers has led over the years to much consideration of environments for statistical computing; that is, to combinations of computing hardware, general-purpose software and statistical software that will, together, help statisticians work productively and insightfully. In this paper, we look at one past perspective, touch on some of the important features of present statistical computing environments, and make some tentative speculations about what may be in our future.