Abstract
The computer program DISCRETE, which fits eight common discrete distributions, has been generalized to fit, in principle, any discrete distribution. The quid pro quo is that the user has to provide initial estimates of the parameters and expand two pre-existing subprograms in FORTRAN. These subprograms specify the likelihood function and calculate the expected probabilities for all cells using the final estimates. The analyses of five carefully selected entomological data sets show that the researcher has to be careful in defining the sampling unit to be neither too large nor too small and that sample size must be sufficiently large to permit discrimination between various distributions.
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© 1989 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Gates, C.E. (1989). Discrete, A Computer Program for Fitting Discrete Frequency Distributions. In: McDonald, L.L., Manly, B.F.J., Lockwood, J.A., Logan, J.A. (eds) Estimation and Analysis of Insect Populations. Lecture Notes in Statistics, vol 55. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3664-1_33
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3664-1_33
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