Jens Scheidtmann wrote:
John Eggert <eggert@sympatico.ca> writes:My normal occupation as a process engineer requires much DOE and SPC work. SAS and others cost tens of thousands of dollars and are not particularly user friendly.Any suggestions for open source? If not, how would I go about getting some people on a band wagon? I'm not a great programmer, but I'd be willing to help. (I'm practicing, but coding in C is not a one night learning experience :)).Look at www.r-project.org and there is a "pspp project" (spss) somewhere out there. Have a look at sal.kachinatech.com HTH, Jens
Hi-Don't even waste your time with pspp. It has been stopped a long time ago, and it was pretty much alpha anyways. R is a very powerfull statistics package. You will be able to import your data from SAS, nothing will be lost. R is *the* prefered statistical software by staticians doing research.R implements the S language. Therefore, it is a "language and environment for statistical computing". This, of course, implies a learning curve, because implies learning to program in R. This, however, gives you more flexibility and power. I used SPSS my self, but I decided that R had everything I needed, so I gave up on SPSS altogether, and I don't regret it.I'm trying to "evangelize" a few people about R. I can also interact with people using other software packages, so their choice doesn't affect me. R has very powerful graphics capabilities, *way* better than anything I've used (I haven't used SAS, though). R is available as a Debian package, but you will have to edit your sources files (instructions on the URL Jens gave you). Updating R is, of course, "no sweat" in a Debian system. The R software is developped by a very serious team of programmers, mostly staticians. One of the main developers holds a Chair of Statistics in Oxford. Don't forget to get the documentation and sign up to the R mailing list, where you can ask questions (after you read the documentation, :-) )
Best reagards Henry