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STatistical
Application
BuiLding
Environment
STABLE
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The STABLE project is aimed at Task 1.11 of the Emerging Software
Technologies Workprogramme of Fourth Framework.
Task 1.11: Development of tools for statistical workstations, to provide
statisticians with a homogeneous information and software environment to
process and analyse statistical data. The research will aim at integrating
statistical packages, implementing libraries of reusable statistical tools,
improving statistical algorithms, and prototyping tools for automated
data/survey processing.
Project Summary
The aim of the STABLE project is to design, build and demonstrate a modern
Statistical Application Building Environment.
The project will integrate an existing application building system, IRIS
Explorer, and an existing widely used statistical software system,
Genstat,
along with other available statistical algorithms to give the new STABLE
system. The STABLE system will then be evaluated by constructing end-user
systems in different application areas. The main characteristics sought for
the STABLE system are:
- use of the visual programming paradigm to provide enhanced ease-of-use and
flexibility
- facilities for new approaches to visualising statistical data
- facilities for the development of end-user applications in 'canned' forms
- ability to incorporate alternative or customised user interfaces to take
account of native language and range of experience
- full complement of reliable and powerful statistical techniques with access
to numerical and other relevant capabilities
- gateways to existing external systems
- open, extensible architecture for incorporating user-developed code
- environment suitable for the research, implementation and promulgation of
new algorithms
- components easily distributable over multiple processors in heterogeneous
environment
Three of the partners will design and construct the initial system in
consultation with the industrial end-user partners and the Board of Advisors
who will represent the interests of various statistical communities.
The major steps in the construction of the system will be
- Production of basic statistical data handling modules
- The extraction of the algorithms from Genstat
- Incorporation of the extracted Genstat algorithms into the STABLE system
with new interfaces
- Development of statistical visualisation modules
Having produced the basic system the industrial end-user partners with the
help of the development partners will construct their applications while the
development partners will continue to develop and modify the system in the
light of feed-back from the application builders.
The resulting system will provide statisticians with a 'next generation'
statistical computing environment within which they can conduct all their
statistical computations. The interface will provide a standard to encourage
cooperation between European developers of statistical algorithms and
methodology. The system will also provide statisticians and statistical
application builders with facilities for the prototyping and the building of
customised applications for specific tasks or user groups thus making a wider
range of statistical methodology available to non-specialist users of
statistics in their problem domains.
The principal market for STABLE will be to professional statisticians in
industry, government and research. In addition applications constructed using
the system will also be marketed
Last modified: Fri Feb 6 13:40:05 1998
© The Numerical Algorithms Group Ltd, Oxford UK, 1997