| Software Components and Document Integration for Statistical Computing (2008) | |||||||||||||||
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| Over the recent years, software component technologies have seen major progress. Applets or plug-ins are by now familiar forms of software components. For statistical computing however, so far they have played only a minor role, such as providing interface elements or demonstration tools with limited functionality. Their potential reaches much further and still needs to be explored. Software components usually are small building blocks, in contrast to more or less monolithic applications. Software components can be dynamically integrated into larger applications, allowing customization for certain tasks. Going beyond this, components can be combined to build complete systems, sometimes making monolithic applications obsolete. Voyager is an example of a system for statistical computing built from components. For an introduction to Voyager, see (Sawitzki 1996). Voyager is based on Oberon from ETH Zürich (Wirth and Gutknecht 1992). Oberon comprises both an operating system and a programming language. We report about some experiences with Voyager, in particular the possibilities to build self-contained integrated documents. The examples are taken from teaching material, but the experiences immediately generalize to other applications such as report generation or data monitoring. Documents are self contained and store their information consistently, even if exchanged or | |||||||||||||||
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