Statistical tools for programmers [closed]

Question

I'm trying to evaluate the purchase of a statistical tool. This will be used in part by non-programming users (doing clinical studies) and in part by programmers, so I'm trying to find a good compromise between usability and automation. Of course, cost is an issue, but if I can build a solid case, we could probably buy a commercial package, so we're not totally limited to free options.

So far, our options are:

• Statistica (which some non-programmers already know)
• Matlab Statistics toolbox (programmers already use matlab)
• R language (would need a UI for non-programmers)
• Hack something into Excel (not fun, but that's what non-programmers do right now)
• ?...

What else is out there? What's the industry standard? What kind of distinctive features should I look for? What would you recommend, and why?

Ideally, we'd like a tool that can run both on Linux and Windows machines.

(I work in medical imaging, so we do both biostatistics, and software engineering statistics)

Answer 1

Hands down it's R. R is very programmer friendly. It has functional aspects and it's GNU.

S-PLUS and R are both based off the S language. Both are similar and in most cases you can run as S-PLUS program in R and vice versa.

SAS is another option, although geared more towards BI and enterprise. SAS has a simpler syntax than R and in my opinion is easier to pickup for a non-programmer.

Other options include SPSS, Matlab, and even Excel.

Answer 2

I recommend R, personally. It's used by bioinformaticians and psychologists, I hear. Don't know what your field is though, so maybe it's a lousy choice. It is reasonably easy to use and learn.

Answer 3

For a statistical package with a GUI which non-technical users can use, I would recommend that you go with "SAS Enterprise Guide". You will get the common and advanced SAS procedures, an excellent graphics facility and the ability to program for the technical users. I recommend that you start with the "SAS Learning Edition" (http://support.sas.com/learn/le/) which is a fully functional version of Enterprise Guide, but limited to processing 1000 rows at a time only. It is under $500, which makes it a pretty good deal.

Answer 4

Stata and SPSS tend to be the most commonly used packages in clinical studies. Both are pretty easy to pick up and use for non-technically minded folks but are generally flexible enough. I've used Stata more than any of the others and have been pretty happy with its options (supports both menu-based and command line operation, decent enough plugin system to get new user-created modules, good graphing support).

R is a little more daunting for newbie users, though it is popular with the biostatisticians. Since it's free, that's another nice point in its favor.