They switched around 3-4 years ago and it was a relief, sort of:
Windows can now CHANGE SIZE - useful when your variable name is longer then 4 characters.
There a fewer gross violations of the windows UI.
On the other hand: I am working with SPSS 19 and it is slow as hell and while the script editor now offers syntax highlithting, you can watch while it paints the characters (fun if your syntax file is bigger than ~500 lines)
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Also: some things like "right click a variable and do a frequency via pop up menu" will probably never be implemented.
Posts made by HdS
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RE: How to import a SPSS Database into our Web application
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How to import a SPSS Database into our Web application
Where I worked, we used SPSS for data handling and presentation, which is a shitty Java Tool in itself but gets the job done.
However, our management decided to build a new web application for data handlung and presentation, because we did a lot of our work online and our customers could view our results much more easily.
I was hired around that time and was a little bit shocked to find out, that there where no specifications, no one talked to our team about this and there where only one developer who worked on this project.
My job was two fold: work in the old "SPSS department" and do normal day to day work there AND create a list of requirements from that work, which is then fed to the developer.
I did as I was told and produced a huge list of requirements which where non negotiable, because our team needed theese functions.
However, when I presented this list to our technical management, the list was truncated to 1/5 of the items, on the grounds of "we did not need these functions which the new shiny tool!" or "these functions are seldom used, so we can ignore them!".
Then this truncated web application was put to work and I should show my coworkers how to use it - there was huge resentment because they could not finish their work due to the lack of features. Especially the "seldom used" functions where needed in practically every project - maybe not every function, but every project contained one seldem used function.
A new meeting was held an the technical management tried to blame me, because i did not find out the requirments - when I showed him the List of the last meeting, he shut up. I also warned them, that the application overall was too slow and cumbersome to be extended as needed. Then our CEO stepped in a blissfully declared "hey, that is easy stuff: only bivariate statistics. What can be so hard?!? - simply do it and shut up" - so we went forth and our programmer tried to add the features, but was totally overwhelmed by the number of features and their complex interactions.
From the beginning, I was pushing for a method to import SPSS data into this application, so that shortcomings of the application could be circumvented by doing the work in SPSS - this was finally approved but the way it was implemented was hilarious:
The application itself is a php script so our developer called R (a statistical package) from php, which opened the datafile and presented tables of the datafile which where then parsed by php.
This worked, sort of - but was slow as hell and error prone.
He could have used the SPSS c files, SPSS python support or a dozen other methods. Heck, SPSS can output data to a database if someone would have asked!
So the tool drained our development resources, and another project of mine could not be finished, because I was forbidden to use SPSS for it and the company took a dive.
So I was let go due to financial concerns and seeked greener pastures elsewhere.
But: last week they called in again: They want to use my other project, which was 99% finished. But because the web application is still unusuable they want to use SPSS for it. They asked if I could finish it - they accepted a rate which is twice my original rate.... -
RE: Excel goof officially a global menace
As a social scientist I would disagree in some instances.
There are strong correlations between GDP and the emergence of democracy and its stabillity.
Since I am at work, I have no acess to my books and cannot show you the exact figures - but basically, it is useless to establish a democracy in very poor states, while somewhat richer countries are likely to shed of autocracy.
But GDP is not everything - it is a composite and generalized measurement, so a lot of other factors have to be taken into account, like past experiences or the nature of the economy (resource based economies are basically bad). -
RE: What happens when data analysts design a Scripting language
Honestly: I would wish to abandon all this piece of shit - but it is not possible: Several ongoing projects have 100,000 lines of code. Also, the Language does a good job of computing and displaying statistical data - it would be a nightmare to graft it on another language.
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RE: What happens when data analysts design a Scripting language
The bad thing about this language is, that there a few alternatives.
There is the SPSS Table module - but its workflow ist actually far worse and it's syntax is next to impossible to write manually.
There are other software packages like WinCross - but I have never used them, so I cannot tell if they are better.
Otherwise: I have a feeling that the entire business of table software will going down in the near future. At the moment several companies are deploying much nicer "online reports" (tables and finished charts), which are superior to the current tools. -
RE: What happens when data analysts design a Scripting language
Can you explain me why that post looked so bad?
In the editor, it look quite normal and I hit submit before going to lunch, sorry -
RE: What happens when data analysts design a Scripting language
Ok, I try to explain it:
Imagine you have to following code
#macro #Test (&Var &VarSecond)
compute variableTest1 = &Var;
compute variableTest2 = &VarSecond;
#endmacro
If executed, the macro should grab the values from the two variables and compute two new variables.
But, when invoked, you get this:
#macro #Test (&TheActualVariable &TheActualVariable2)
compute variableTest1 = &TheActualVariable;
compute variableTest2 = &TheActualVariableSecond;
#endmacro
The problem occurs in the Last line: It blissfully applies a simple string substitution and replaces all "&Var" occurences - even if there are other Variables with "&Varxxxxxx".
[mod - last time I'm going to do this - PJH] -
What happens when data analysts design a Scripting language
I am currently working in a job where producing huge sets of nicely formatted Tables[1] is my day to day job. It is somewhat boring, but I am learning programming on the side so its overall ok.
My only real gripe is the "table language" we are using.
Generally the process looks like this:
data comes to me in a SPSS Datafile (think of a statiscial analysis package)
I am writing a script in the table language
The tool writes this data to a nicely formatted pdf or excel file.
Unfortunately the designers of the Table language are terribly bad a designing languages:- there are "macros" to reduce the amount of script you have to write. Unfortuately, any error in the macro error is simply announced as "macro error" - very helpfull when your macro contains 500+ lines. You can look at the finished macro - but it is written to a single linve of text which can become quite long (10.000 characters....).
- Macros can handle "variables" unfortunately, you have to be careful with the names. If you have a variable called "Top" and another one called "TopMost" the substitution process will replace all places where TopMost is called with Top. If I called the developer he was really suprised that not every language works like this.
- There is no concept of arrays, making it impossible to avoid huge copy & paste orgies, because without arrays, the macros are not really useful.
- Much worse is the fact, that there are builtin variables like the Tablename, which can be written, but not read - again crippling macros because you cannot append text to the end of the Tablename, which would be great in cases there a multiple tables, where only part of the Name changes.
- The PDF files are not directly created, but are written as .ps files.
- and: The damned thing is ancient and writes its excel tables via com.interop calls directly to excel. Which creates all sorts of fun of you want to work with your computer while it creates tables. And it is horrible slow. They recently ported this behaviour to OpenOffice, so my suggestion of writing xlsx files directly was obviously lost on them.
[1] [mod - but not nicely formatted forum posts it seems? Brick-text tidied up with <br /> markup. May I suggest the use of the preview tab until you get used to the foibles of the forum - if ever. PJH]
- there are "macros" to reduce the amount of script you have to write. Unfortuately, any error in the macro error is simply announced as "macro error" - very helpfull when your macro contains 500+ lines. You can look at the finished macro - but it is written to a single linve of text which can become quite long (10.000 characters....).