Software for CSI771 / STAT751

Some important tasks we use the computer for are email, information gathering, text generation, document development, information distribution, graphics generation, data analysis, simulation, and (real) programming.

All of these tasks require software.

These first two tasks are passive, and I assume you've already got whatever you need for them.

For the other tasks, there are various types of software available, and I generally do not require any particular program for any of them, but I will make suggestions. The examples I give in class will use the programs I recommend.

An active user group consisting of "your kind of people" is usually a good sign that the program is worth your consideration.

You may have your own programs, or you may use those at George Mason or at other sites. One of the George Mason systems is called SCS, which is a Linux system. Information about the SCS system and the software available on it can be obtained at http://www.scs.gmu.edu/computing/

Text Generation

Generation of plain ASCII text is one of the most fundamental tasks on the computer. I use emacs on Unix/Linux systems and Crimson editor on MS Windows systems. These are both free. Emacs is available on most of the George Mason computing systems.

Many programs for other applications include text editors, but I like to use the same text editor for all text generation tasks. When I'm using another application package, I just cut and paste.

Software for text generation should be simple, cheap or free, and widely distributed. It should have spell checking and language checking/formating abilities (but not necessarily grammar checking!). It should also have nice macro capabilities.

Microsoft Word or WordPerfect can be used if you don't have anything better.

Document Development

The best system for generating scientific documents is TeX and the LaTeX package. There are both free and commercial implementations of TeX. General information about TeX and LaTeX, including sources for obtaining the software is available at http://www.latex-project.org/ It is available on most of the George Mason computing systems. MiKTeX is a free MS Windows system.

Microsoft Word or WordPerfect can be used if you don't have anything better.

Information Distribution

To share information with others, you need to put your documents into a form that can be viewed by the other person's system. This usually means pdf, which is a binary coding that is to be read by Adobe Reader, or html, which is ASCII and is to be processed by a web browser.

Most TeX systems have the ability to produce pdf files. Simple html documents can be produced directly in a

Microsoft Word or WordPerfect can be used if you don't have anything better, because these systems are widely available. They are suboptimal for scientific documents, however.

Graphics Generation

There are various packages available for generation of clear, informative graphics.

Two very good and very similar packages are R and S-Plus.

I usually use R. It is free and is available from http://www.r-project.org/

The most widely used is Excel, and it can be used if you don't have anything better.

Data Analysis

There are various packages available for statistical data analysis.

I usually use R. It is free and is available from http://www.r-project.org/

The most widely used is Excel, and it can be used if you don't have anything better.

Simulation

There are various packages available for simulation of stochastic data generating processes.

For simple simulations and for rapid prototyping, I usually use R. For more extensive simulations, I use Fortran.

The most widely used is Excel, and it can be used if you don't have anything better.

(Real) Programming

This generally means Fortran or C/C++.