BMDP provides in-depth functionality for all the major statistical analyses; such as ANOVA, Regression, Nonparametric Analysis, Times Series, etc. In addition, BMDP is particularly highly-rated for the quality and extent of its Survival Analysis Modules, programs 1L & 2L , as well as for the statistical advances made with programs such as 5V (Unbalanced Repeated Measures Models with Structured Covariance matrices, LE (Maximum Likelihood Estimation) and PR (Polychotomous Logistic Regression).
Statistical Software Inc., the orginal vendor for BMDP, was purchased by SPSS in 1995. SPSS incorporated some of its capabilities into other products, primarily SYSTAT, instead of providing further updates to the BMDP product.
The following is a brief overview of some of the functionalities of BMDP:
Rohan is licensed for release 7.1 of BMDP for Unix. There is no commitment to support BMDP by SPSS. While unlikely, it is possible future upgrades to the Solaris Operating System may disable BMDP.
The BMDP programs can be run as background processes (line mode), or with an X-Windows interface. The X interface integrates data analysis with online help and interactive graphics. It includes input, output, and graphics panes along with on-screen menus and dialog boxes.
If you prefer to run BMDP programs as background processes, or you don't have access to X-Windows, you can run BMDP without the graphical interface. You invoke BMDP by typing bmdp program_name . Normally, you would also specify an input filename and output filename. To run the process in the background so you can execute other Unix commands, append an ampersand ('&') to the previous command. For example:
rohan% bmdp 4v /opt/bmdp/inps/4v.inp 4v.out &
This will run the sample for program 4v and put the output in a file named 4v.out in your current Unix directory. To view the output on your screen, enter:
rohan% less 4v.out
To print the output, enter:
rohan% ensript -Brs 0.3 -f Courier9 4v.out
This command uses enscript to convert the ASCII text to Postscript, and rotate it to lansdscape, using a 9 point Courier font, sending it to the SCC laser printer queue. Landscape printing is recommended, as BMDP often produces output lines of more than 80 characters. BMDP also tends to put a page eject command right at the beginning of its output files. You may wish to edit the first Ctrl-L at the beginning of the file before printing it.
This section of the document describes BMDP running under X-Windows and it assumes familiarity with X-Windows. It helps to have a BMDP session running as described later.
BMDP for X is meant primarily for workstations with a graphics monitor, X-Windows software, and a mouse. All the SCC and RBR PC's have the necessary hardware and software to run BMDP for X. You can also use an X-Windows emulator to run an X-window session on your PC (X-Win32) or Macintosh (MacX).
To begin an XBMDP session:
rohan% mkdir bmdp
rohan% cd bmdp
rohan% cp /opt/bmdp/inps/1v.inp .
You can use any .inp file in this directory.
rohan% xbmdp 1v 1v.inp &
where '1v' is the BMDP program name. This will run the 1v.inp program in a windowing environment.
Or, to start with a blank BMDP X-window, type:
rohan% xbmdp &
You can also retrieve a BMDP file from within the BMDP X-window as described below.
The BMDP X-window has three panes. The top pane displays graphics output, the middle pane displays text output, and the bottom one is for entering BMDP commands. You can resize a pane with the mouse by clicking and dragging the square grip in the lower right corner of the pane. Each grip controls the size of two adjoining window panes so that increasing the size of one pane decreases the size of the other.
In a BMDP X-window, you can use the mouse to choose menu commands. For example, follow these steps to retrieve a BMDP input file.
BMDP provides online help for the statistical programs and XBmdp options. To get help:
You can enter, edit, and save a BMDP input file in the Input pane. The following commands are available in the built in editor. The '^' indicates the Ctrl key.
| Action | Command |
|---|---|
| right 1 char | ^f or <cursor right> |
| left 1 char | ^b or <cursor left> |
| beginning of line | ^a |
| end of line | ^e |
| next line | ^n or <cursor down> |
| previous line | ^p or <cursor up> |
| next page | ^v or <Page Down> |
| previous page | <Page Up> |
| top of file | ^< |
| end of file | ^> |
| delete | ^d |
| backspace | <Backspace> or <Delete> |
| delete to end of line | ^k |
| retrieve deleted line | ^y |
If you are using csh or tcsh, change the default editor by typing:
rohan% setenv BMDP_EDIT editor_name
at the Unix shell prompt or in the .cshrc file.
If you are using bash, change the default editor by typing:
rohan% BMDP_EDIT=editor_name
You must select a BMDP program first to run on an input file.
There are a number of ways in which you can submit the BMDP instructions to the program.
Click the Quit button to end an XBmdp session. You may want to enter file names for saving output, graphics, or setup defaults. Click the Confirm button and then click the Quit button again to exit BMDP.