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Summary: RPM and SRPMS

    1: 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 is licensed under the GNU GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE.
   11: 
   12: The program estimates Life Expectancies from Cross-longitudinal
   13: studies as well as age-specific forward and backward prevalences in each state.
   14: The main publications are:
   15: (1) Lièvre, A. Brouard. N, Heathcote Ch. Estimating Health
   16: Expectancies from Cross-longitudinal surveys, Mathematical Population Studies, 10(1), 2003, pp. 1-52.
   17: (2) Nicolas Brouard, 2019, "Theory and applications of backward probabilities and prevalences in cross-longitudinal surveys". In: Arni S. R. Srinivasa Rao (Ed.) and C.R. Rao (Ed.), Handbook of Statistics.
   18: Integrated population biology and modeling, Part B, Elsevier, p. 435-486.
   19: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12204/AWltfxMuXMQCvuZmm9UI
   20: 
   21: To be brief, for each people interviewed we need the age and 
   22: state at each interview. Also the month and year of death should be
   23: known as for birth.  We model the probability to be observed in any
   24: state at any age via a parametric model and estimate the parameters
   25: and their confidence interval by maximum likelihood. Many tables and
   26: graphs are output in HTML. Graphs are built using gnuplot.
   27: 
   28: First versions appeared around year 2000. Currently (May 2019)
   29: version 0.99r19 can run on any Unix, including OS/X and on Windows 10
   30: (64bit) as well as Windows XP (32bit).
   31: 
   32: Binaries are usually provided for OS/X (DMG for 64bit), Linux (rpm)
   33: and Windows installer (32 and 64bit).
   34: 
   35: 
   36: STRUCTURE of the binary
   37: 
   38: IMaCh is a command line program (no time for a GUI) which means that
   39: it can be run on a shell by "$ imach foo.imach" where foo.imach is your
   40: 'parameter' file which is a simple text file with a few lines that
   41: your must edit in order to describe your data as well as your model
   42: line. In this parameter file you give the name and path of your data
   43: file which is also a text file.
   44: 
   45: Even if it is command line program, most operating systems offer
   46: simplifications of use:
   47: 
   48: - On Windows, you can click on the imach.exe icon (which opens a DOS
   49: window) and drag your parameter file into the DOS windows and enter
   50: return. You can use the right click (once your mouse cursor is on an
   51: foo.imach file) to either edit the parameter file (with notepad) or
   52: execute this parameter file via imach. At the end of the run, your are
   53: asked to enter a character and the terminal will not disappear.
   54: 
   55: - On OSX, you can click on the IMaCh application and a terminal window will be
   56:   opened: either type in the name and path of your parameter file or
   57:   drag it from the finder.
   58: 
   59: The output of your run consists in many text files which are grouped
   60: into a sub-directory having the same name as of your parameter
   61: filename 'foo'. In addition, you will find two other important files
   62: on the same directory as your parameter file:
   63: 
   64: -1- a text file named 'foo.gp' which is a gnuplot file. This gnuplot
   65: is automatically runned by imach in order to create the graphs from
   66: the various result text files.
   67: 
   68: You can edit this gnuplot file, customize it at your will and run it
   69: to get additional figures or modified figures to be published. Just
   70: click on gnuplot executable and type "load foo.gp" for example.
   71: 
   72: Gnuplot is a well known grapher under the GPL license too. As it is
   73: changing often, the OS/X and Windows installers are providing binaries
   74: for gnuplot 2.6.5.
   75: 
   76: -2- a text file named 'foo.htm' which is an html file. It can be
   77: opened by your browser and it will display various hyperlinks to most
   78: of your results as well as your graphs.
   79: 
   80: 
   81: Since the era of 64bit processors and their wide use on OS/X and
   82: Windows 7, 8 or 10, we discovered that our usual GNU compiler were not
   83: efficient on Windows 64 and current binaries are compiled with the
   84: Intel C compiler.  On OS/X the native LLVM C compiler from Apple is
   85: very efficient too.
   86: 
   87: Usually IMaCh binaries are distributed under two subdirectories, 'bin' for the
   88: binaries which are imach.exe and gnuplot.exe and 'html' for some of the
   89: documentation, and 'mytry' in order to test the program on a parameter
   90: file named 'mypar.imach'.
   91: 
   92: By default the file 'gnuplot.exe' is located on the same directory as
   93: imach and is used by imach with its absolute path. Thus, if you have
   94: another gnuplot program which is already in your path it will not be used by
   95: imach (we tried to simplify the installation process).
   96: 
   97: If you download a newer version of IMaCh, you are supposed to Uninstall the
   98: former version with the standard Install/Uninstall process of Windows.
   99: 
  100: Enjoy (?) using IMaCh.
  101: 
  102: You may subscribe to imach-users@listes.ined.fr by sending a mail at
  103: imach-users-subscribe@listes.ined.fr and you can unsubscribe with a
  104: mail to imach-users-unsubscribe@listes.ined.fr .
  105: 
  106: Other comments are included on the Wiki server
  107: http://euroreves.ined.fr/imach/wiki, please use it ask questions too.
  108: 
  109: Nicolas Brouard (brouard at ined point fr)
  110: Institut national d'études démographiques
  111: 133 Boulevard Davout
  112: 75014 Paris
  113: 
  114: Earlier versions were also written by 
  115: Agnès Lièvre (former PHD student at INED)
  116: Christopher Heathcote (ANU)
  117: 
  118:  
  119: