Identify computer tools that can be used to facilitate research

1. SPSS,
•Very easy to use GUI
•Syntax is inflexible and not too powerful
–However contains several procedures otherwise not available in menu system
•Recently updated graphics (v. 12.0) are much improved
•Very popular, but expensive
–Affordable copies are crippled
•www.spss.com

2. STATA,
•Powerful stats program from TAMU
•Now with GUI interface
•Typically the choice of Poli-Sci and Economics crowd
• www.stata.com

3. SAS
•Powerful, but difficult to learn and inflexible
•Struggling to keep up with the times, especially graphically
•Very popular, especially in business circles
•http://www.sas.com/