Statistical Microcomputing—Like it is

Abstract

A statistical software package is a collaborative effort between a program's authors and users. When statistical analysis took place exclusively on mainframe computers, the entire statistical community was served by some three to six major packages, which helped to ensure that program errors would be quickly uncovered and corrected. The current trend toward performing statistical analysis on microcomputers has resulted in an explosion of software of varying quality, with more than 200 packages for the IBM PC alone. Since all of these programs are competing for the same base of knowledgeable users, the number of sophisticated users per package is dramatically less than for mainframe packages; the net result is that problems in any particular package are more likely to go unnoticed and uncorrected. For example, the most widely used shareware package contains major errors that should cause it to be rejected out of hand, and three best-selling packages analyze unbalanced two-factor experiments using an approximate technique originally developed for hand calculation. Several strategies are offered to help author and user reveal any problems that might be present in their software.

Key Words:

• Analysis of variance
• EPISTAT
• Statistical software packages