Generations

  1. The first generation was an MS DOS application known as Arcus Pro-Stat. Developed in the late 1980s early 1990s this software was built with Microsoft FORTRAN, Assembler and BASIC Professional Development System tools. It focused on statistical functions commonly used in medical research, making them easier to use via an intuitive interface. Data were entered via a spreadsheet-like interface and analyses were reported in text that the user could edit, with hidden links to context sensitive help in the output. The editor was later made available as a help compiler for authoring clinical guidelines, known as Path.Finder.
  2. The second generation, known initially as Arcus Quickstat, introduced a graphical user interface running on Microsoft Windows. It built on a familiar spreadsheet/word-processor paradigm for editing data and reports of analyses. The software was developed in Microsoft Visual Basic, Microsoft Assembler and Digital (later Compaq) FORTRAN. The FORTRAN was refactored as FORTRAN 90. After doubling the available number of statistical functions and expansion of the help content, in 2000 the software was renamed StatsDirect. Reviews of the software at this time included BMJ (2000), JAMA (2000), HMS Beagle (2000), Medscape TechMed (2001) and the Journal of Public Health Medicine (2002).
  3. The third generation was introduced in 2013 after porting all of the underlying code to managed C#, aimed at allowing the code to be both portable and optimised at install-time for users' environments. More demanding calculations and simulations were added, taking advantage of the loop and memory optimisation features of the .Net platform. It maintained the spreadsheet/word-processor/menu-driven/embedded-help interface. The computational engine was separated from user-interaction, reporting and help - enabling new functions to be written by external developers in R or any of the languages that can be compiled in real time under .Net.
  4. The fourth generation was introduced in 2024 and made free. It was a consolidation of the third generation of StatsDirect for the mature .Net (version 6.1 and above) platform, adopting .Net Core readiness for a future cross-platform application.
  5. The fifth generation was introduced in September 2026 and made open source. It integrates generative AIs for code audit and the development of new user-interfaces, including conversational analyses of data linked to research at The University of Liverpool.

StatsDirect 5 design principles

  1. User-interaction must anticipate common statistical misconceptions, challenging them through: interaction dialogs; the format of results reported; and help materials linked to contexts of menus, dialogs and reports.
  2. User-interaction, data management, statistical calculation, reporting and help technologies must be separated in code so that different components can be substituted in future/derived applications, for example a cross-platform browser-based reporting engine with SVG charting instead of Windows-specific rich text and metafile based reports.
  3. All in-built numerical algorithms must allow compilers to manage memory and loop optimisation so that advances in compiler technologies feed through into performance gains.
  4. Power-users must be able to add their own statistical functions to the basic set distributed, such that statistical gurus can broadcast new/adapted methods to their disciplines in ways that are easy to transfer via social media and email.
  5. All functions must be described in an XML file that controls user user-interaction, calculation, reporting and help pointers.
  6. Statistical algorithms are called by the controlling XML from: a library of methods in the core application; or code embedded in the XML as a language that can be compiled in real time under .Net or control syntax for an external statistical engine.
  7. StatsDirect must be able to create and run R scripts, for both users who wish to interact with the R graphical user interface and for those who don't.
  8. The StatisticalHelp learning materials (and StatsDirect's help system) will be developed (in open source) to harness and test generative AIs' 'Conversational Data Analytic' abilities, e.g. in generating R scripts for causal inference given a set of data an 'conversations' about causality.
  9. StatsDirect application source code is open source: StatsDirect's own code is released under the MIT License.

Contributors

  1. Iain Buchan has contributed since 1987 as lead developer for the first, initial second and fifth generations of the software.
  2. Rachel Crowther has contributed since 2004 as lead developer for the later second, third and fourth generations of the software.
  3. Many StatsDirect users and researchers have contributed to the improvements in the software over four decades, and now AI that learns from global open source is contributing.