ViSta, The Visual Statistics system

ViSta, the Visual Statistics system is a freeware statistical system developed by Forrest W. Young of the University of North Carolina. ViSta current version maintained by Pedro M. Valero-Mora of the University of Valencia and can be found at [1]. Old versions of ViSta and of the documentation can be found at [2].

ViSta incorporates a number of special features that are of both theoretical and practical interest: The workmap keeps record of the datasets opened by the user and the subsequent statistical transformations and analysis applied to them. Spreadplots show all the relevant plots for a dataset with a given combination of types of variables. Graphics are the primary way of output in contrast with traditional statistics packages where the textual output is more important.

References

  • Young, F. W., Valero-Mora, P. M. & Friendly, M. (2006) Visual Statistics: Seeing Data with Interactive Graphics. Wiley ISBN 978-0-471-68160-1
  • Meissner, W. (2008) Book review of "Visual Statistics: Seeing Data with Interactive Graphics". Psychometrika 73, 1. Springer.
  • ViSta is mentioned in Michael Friendly's Milestones of Statistical Graphics
  • This site keeps the last version of ViSta and other information [3]
  • The original site for ViSta with old versions and documentation [4]
  • Some Plug-ins to extend the ViSta's analysis options [5]
  • Current version is 7.9.2.8 (2014, March) [6]