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    1: Interpolated Marlov Chain (IMaCh program)
    2: 
    3: This program is GPL licensed for the part the code that we wrote at
    4: INED. But currently (version 0.98b January 2006) maximization routines use
    5: a modified version of the patented routines from "Numerical Recipes in
    6: C". If you have the right to use the sources of their software you can
    7: get access to the source code and to the CVS tree of IMaCh.
    8: 
    9: The program estimates Health Expectancies from Cross-longitudinal
   10: studies.
   11: The main publication is Lievre, A. Brouard. N, Heathcote
   12: Ch. Estimating Health Expectancies from Cross-longitudinal surveys,
   13: Mathematical Population Studies, 10(1), 2003, pp. 1-52.
   14: 
   15: To be brief, for each people interviewed we need the age and health
   16: status at each interview. Also the month and year of death should be
   17: known as for birth.  We model the probability to be observed in any
   18: state at any age via a parametric model and estimate the parameters
   19: and their confidence interval by maximum likelihood. Many tables and
   20: graphs are output in HTML. Graphs are built using gnuplot.
   21: 
   22: In the Windows version, gnuplot is also distributed. Version 4 of
   23: gnuplot is out since early 2004 and is used by latest version of Imach
   24: (at least version 0.38i of gnuplot is required).  IMaCh is supposed to work on
   25: Linux, Unix, MacIntosh (Panther, Tiger) and Windows (9X or NT/XP).
   26: 
   27: WINDOWS
   28: On Windows it is distributed via a setup file (no more a zip file). As
   29: usual, you can put the 'imach' directory in Program Files or
   30: wherever. The directory contains at least 2 directories, 'bin' for the
   31: binaries which are imach.exe and gnuplot.exe, doc for some of the
   32: documentation, and 'mytry' in order to test the program on a parameter
   33: file name 'mypar.imach'.
   34: 
   35: You still can click on the imach.exe icon (which opens a DOS window)
   36: and drag your parameter file into the DOS windows and enter
   37: return. But with the newly installable version (>0.97) you can use the right
   38: click (once your mouse cursor is on an foo.imach file) to either edit the
   39: parameter file (with wordpad) or execute this parameter file via
   40: imach.
   41: If the program runs well you get a main foo.htm file which can be viewed
   42: with your browser and which includes all the results.
   43: 
   44: As the program output a file named foo.gp which is executed by gnuplot
   45: in order to draw all the graphs, you can edit it and customize it at
   46: your will.
   47: 
   48: By default the file gnuplot.exe is located on the same directory as
   49: imach and is used by imach with its absolute path. Thus if you have
   50: another gnuplot program which is in your path it will not be used by
   51: imach (we tried to simplify the installation process).
   52: 
   53: If you download a newer version of IMaCh you are supposed to Uninstall the
   54: former version with the standard Install/Uninstall process of Windows.
   55: 
   56: The Windows version is compiled via cygwin (gcc -mno-cygwin -o imach
   57: imach.c). It can be used on a command line with the command "imach
   58: foo.imach". But then imach.exe must be in your path. 
   59: The program can be used (with more comfort?) on Linux or on a
   60: MacIntosh.
   61: 
   62: Enjoy (?) using IMaCh.
   63: 
   64: You may subscribe to imach-users@listes.ined.fr by sending a mail at
   65: imach-users-subscribe@listes.ined.fr and you can unsubscribe with a
   66: mail to imach-users-unsubscribe@listes.ined.fr .
   67: 
   68: Other comments are included on the Wiki server
   69: http://euroreves.ined.fr/imach/wiki, please use it ask questions too.
   70: 
   71: Nicolas Brouard (brouard at ined point fr)
   72: Agnès Lièvre (lievre chez ined dot fr)
   73: Christopher Heathcote
   74: 
   75:  
   76: