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Summary: imach 0.99r16

    1: TEST Version IMaCh 0.99
    2: Parameter files have new undocumented parameters.
    3: Look at the archives of imach-users@listes.ined.fr for information.
    4: 
    5: Current documentation on the web site is for 0.98 (before the
    6: introduction of varying covariates).
    7: 
    8: Interpolated Marlov Chain (IMaCh program)
    9: 
   10: This program will be licensed under the GNU GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE.
   11: 
   12: The program estimates Health Expectancies from Cross-longitudinal
   13: studies.
   14: The main publication is Lievre, A. Brouard. N, Heathcote
   15: Ch. Estimating Health Expectancies from Cross-longitudinal surveys,
   16: Mathematical Population Studies, 10(1), 2003, pp. 1-52.
   17: 
   18: To be brief, for each people interviewed we need the age and health
   19: status at each interview. Also the month and year of death should be
   20: known as for birth.  We model the probability to be observed in any
   21: state at any age via a parametric model and estimate the parameters
   22: and their confidence interval by maximum likelihood. Many tables and
   23: graphs are output in HTML. Graphs are built using gnuplot.
   24: 
   25: First versions appeared around year 2000. Currently (September 2015)
   26: version 0.98q5 can run on any Unix, including OS/X and on Windows 10
   27: (64bit) as well as Windows XP (32bit).
   28: 
   29: Binaries are usually provided for OS/X (DMG for 64bit), Linux (rpm)
   30: and Windows installer (32 and 64bit).
   31: 
   32: 
   33: STRUCTURE of the binary
   34: 
   35: IMaCh is a command line program (no time for a GUI) which means that
   36: it can be run on a shell by $ imach foo.imach where foo.imach is your
   37: 'parameter' file which is a simple text file with a few lines that
   38: your must edit in order to describe your data as well as your model
   39: line. In this parameter file you give the name and path of your data
   40: file which is also a text file.
   41: 
   42: Even if it is command line program, most operating systems offer
   43: simplifications of use:
   44: 
   45: - On Windows, you can click on the imach.exe icon (which opens a DOS
   46: window) and drag your parameter file into the DOS windows and enter
   47: return. You can use the right click (once your mouse cursor is on an
   48: foo.imach file) to either edit the parameter file (with notepad) or
   49: execute this parameter file via imach. At the end of the run, your are
   50: asked to enter a character and the terminal will not disappear.
   51: 
   52: - On OSX, you can click on the IMaCh application and a terminal window will be
   53:   opened: either type in the name and path of your parameter file or
   54:   drag it from the finder.
   55: 
   56: The output of your run consists in many text files which are grouped
   57: into a sub-directory having the same name as of your parameter
   58: filename 'foo'. In addition, you will find two other important files
   59: on the same directory as your parameter file:
   60: 
   61: -1- a text file named 'foo.gp' which is a gnuplot file. This gnuplot
   62: is automatically runned by imach in order to create the graphs from
   63: the various result text files.
   64: 
   65: You can edit this gnuplot file, customize it at your will and run it
   66: to get additional figures or modified figures to be published. Just
   67: click on gnuplot executable and type "load foo.gp" for example.
   68: 
   69: Gnuplot is a well known grapher under the GPL license too. As it is
   70: changing often, the OS/X and Windows installers are providing binaries
   71: for gnuplot 2.6.5.
   72: 
   73: -2- a text file named 'foo.htm' which is an html file. It can be
   74: opened by your browser and it will display various hyperlinks to most
   75: of your results as well as your graphs.
   76: 
   77: 
   78: Since the era of 64bit processors and their wide use on OS/X and
   79: Windows 7, 8 or 10, we discovered that our usual GNU compiler were not
   80: efficient on Windows 64 and current binaries are compiled with the
   81: Intel C compiler.  On OS/X the native LLVM C compiler from Apple is
   82: very efficient too.
   83: 
   84: Usually IMaCh binaries are distributed under two subdirectories, 'bin' for the
   85: binaries which are imach.exe and gnuplot.exe and 'html' for some of the
   86: documentation, and 'mytry' in order to test the program on a parameter
   87: file named 'mypar.imach'.
   88: 
   89: By default the file 'gnuplot.exe' is located on the same directory as
   90: imach and is used by imach with its absolute path. Thus, if you have
   91: another gnuplot program which is already in your path it will not be used by
   92: imach (we tried to simplify the installation process).
   93: 
   94: If you download a newer version of IMaCh, you are supposed to Uninstall the
   95: former version with the standard Install/Uninstall process of Windows.
   96: 
   97: Enjoy (?) using IMaCh.
   98: 
   99: You may subscribe to imach-users@listes.ined.fr by sending a mail at
  100: imach-users-subscribe@listes.ined.fr and you can unsubscribe with a
  101: mail to imach-users-unsubscribe@listes.ined.fr .
  102: 
  103: Other comments are included on the Wiki server
  104: http://euroreves.ined.fr/imach/wiki, please use it ask questions too.
  105: 
  106: Nicolas Brouard (brouard at ined point fr)
  107: Institut national d'études démographiques
  108: 133 Boulevard Davout
  109: 75014 Paris
  110: 
  111: Earlier versions were also written by 
  112: Agnès Lièvre (former PHD student at INED)
  113: Christopher Heathcote (ANU)
  114: 
  115:  
  116: