SYSTAT (version 5.03) will do scatterplot matrices (casement plots) with its SPLOM utlity. SYSTAT appears to have output options that can be used for publication quality. The OUTPUT menu includes options to produce color separations and specify various printers, plotters, film cameras, or metafiles. I have no experience using these options. I have used a laser printer with excellent results. I have occasional use of statistical software, and I personally find the SYSTAT menu system somewhat confusing and cumbersome to use. The menu system is poorly integrated with the extensive command set. The command set allows almost most types of analysis, some of which I had difficulty construting using the menus alone. The on-line help system has little value. It rarely gave me any insight into the question I had of the system. The printed documentation is oriented towards users of the command mode, generally ignoring the menu commands. I avoided the data management utilities, finding it much easier to manipulate data in dBASE and import the data into SYSTAT data files. My opinion is that SYSTAT can do most of the analysis that you need, provided that you are willing to learn the command set. SYSTAT is very powerful in terms of the types of analyses that can be constructed. The onscreen graphics, especially the 3-D spin plot, really help in exploratory data analysis. Because it is such a powerful package, the learning curve in using it effectively is somewhat steep. I understand that SYSTAT has a Windows and Macintosh version. John W. LeBlanc (510) 642-2360 Extension Forestry FAX 643-5438 University of California Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management 163 Mulford Hall Berkeley, CA 94720 INTERNET jleblanc@nature.berkeley.edu
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