Summary
Statistical packages that constrain their users to choosing from a fixed set of analyses restrict the types of investigation that scientists may undertake, or lead to approximate or inappropriate analyses. We describe methods and criteria for designing a flexible package that avoids such deficiencies, with illustrations from our involvement with Genstat, in particular from the design of the new version called Genstat 5. Use of comprehensive algorithms and the ability to include user-supplied source code are important, but the crucial feature is that the commands of the package should themselves constitute a programming language for defining statistical, and other, computations.
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© 1986 Physica-Verlag, Heidelberg for IASC (International Association for Statistical Computing)
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Payne, R.W., Lane, P.W. (1986). Design Criteria for a Flexible Statistical Language. In: De Antoni, F., Lauro, N., Rizzi, A. (eds) COMPSTAT. Physica-Verlag HD. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-46890-2_51
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-46890-2_51
Publisher Name: Physica-Verlag HD
Print ISBN: 978-3-7908-0355-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-46890-2
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