> However, your last sentence is so seriously misleading that it must > be corrected. >
I'm interested. > First, octave is no "spreadsheet" but close to being a clone of the > MatLab core executable. Therefore it is a highly programmable matrix- and > array-oriented general-purpose numerical analysis package and it is > exremely powerful. What it lacks relative to MatLab is the range of > "toolboxes" which add specialised pre-programmed functionality. Though it > does have its own Statistics "toolbox" this is less complete than > MatLab's. However, nothing whatever prevents a knowledgeable user from > programming their own very sophisticated statistical analysis, far beyond > what any spreadsheet known to me could achieve. > Octave is good. I use it extensively. But it is not a specialised statistics software package like statistica. > In addition there are some powerful "free unix programs" which specialise > in Statistics. "R" and "XLispStat" are important examples. An important > though more specialised (based on Monte Carlo approaches to Bayesian > statistics) package is BUGS, also available for Linux. > I can't claim to have used these packages, but at least they will give the originator of this thread (and me) something to look at. > And, lest your last sentence should give the impression that only > programs with spreadsheet-like capability are available for UNIX > generally, don't forget that almost all the major programs exist > in UNIX versions (MatLab, S-plus, SPSS, Mathematica, SAS, maybe also > Statistica, and so on) and many of them have been ported to Linux > as well (MatLab being early on the Linux scene). > Statistica is a push and click program that allows you to preform some pretty complex analysis with relatively little affort. I don't think the originator of this thread is particularly interested in writing m code etc ... Well at least my slightly abrasive email caused you to write an informative reply useful to all. Regards ....
