Statistics Open For All

The 0.9 series has finally begun! The main emphasis of this series is to enhance the learn-as-you-go goal of SOFA Statistics. For example, when choosing a statistical test it is important to know if the data is normally distributed or not. You can do this at the point where you’re choosing your test:

Graph to help determine normality

Here is the list of new features added in 0.9.0:

• When selecting a statistical test to use, users can examine the normality of a variable visually and with a test of kurtosis and skew.  The thumbnail can be expanded into a more detailed histogram.
• When opening the project selection dialog it defaults to the version last selected during session.
• Opening the data selection dialog uses the last database and table selected during session.
• Information on filter used also displayed in immediate output.
• The values displayed in tests like the ANOVA take any filtering into account.
• When exporting script, user reminded where it is being appended.
• When editing variable details, user is reminded where the changes are being saved.
• Useful message to user if using deprecated project file format.

Bug fix:

• Fixed simple naming bug which prevented independent t-test and mann-whitney from running.

This is the first release with Matplotlib (scientific graphing) included and the 0.9 series of releases should include lots more graphing and internal documentation to a) help users choose the correct test and b) confirm that they made the right choice.

NB The current plan is to use RaphaelJS for the output charting, not Matplotlib.  Matplotlib graphics will be restricted to a support role, albeit a very important one.  This decision is consistent with the “beautiful output” goal of SOFA Statistics.  RaphaelJS is still maturing as a library, so it may be a while till conventional output graphing is part of SOFA Statistics.  But most of the foundations are in place.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 4th, 2010 at 10:22 pm and is filed under education, general. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.