Computing Environments for Data Analysis

A computing environment is a collection of hardware and software tools that are integrated so as to work well with one another and designed to make a selected class of computations easy and natural to carry out. Experience with interactive statistical programs such as GLIM, Snap, and Minitab suggests that experienced data analysts develop distinctive computing styles when approaching data that integrate some of the tools these programs provide into more general strategies for data analysis. Computing environments specifically designed for data analysis make these strategies easier and more natural to describe and to implement, and make them accessible to data analysts with considerably less experience.