[Blindmath] Question about Minitab

[Michael Whapples]

Hello,
Could you tell me whether R is any good for SPC? This is the only bit where excel will not be enough for my course and I have been advised to avoid it if possible and for the little bit of SPC I may not be able to avoid then may be just get sighted assistance for using minitab. In some ways if R will be suitable then R might be better as then I can do the work when I want and I need not avoid SPC unless I feel I want to.

Michael whapples
On 24 Oct 2011, at 22:02, Jonathan Godfrey wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> Michael is correct in that the current version of Minitab is not as friendly
> as previous versions.
> 
> I have used Minitab from version 8 (under DOS) to 16 and over that time (17
> years) things have got worse.
> 
> The dialogue boxes and menus are an absolute nightmare for the new user. I
> can get by because I remember the menus from previous versions. Having said
> that, I do not choose to use Minitab for anything except talking my students
> through things so I'm not actually touching it, they are.
> 
> The command language of Minitab is usable with jaws or nvda. The language is
> far from natural and the resources for such commands are mostly old (dating
> back to the DOS version where we all typed commands out). Most staff working
> with Minitab do not know the syntax even though it is automatically
> generated as the dialogue boxes are used.
> 
> 
> The number of outputs that have been altered from text to graphic in Minitab
> is on the rise too. There were ways of generating ASCII graphics for most
> things in the past, but this art has been lost in more recent versions.
> 
> Should you want an alternative that is superior to EXCEL, I could recommend
> R. See
> http://r-resources.massey.ac.nz to see what sort of support I offer blind R
> users.
> 
> I'll put some Excel comments in the reply to Michael.
> 
> Jonathan
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Blindmath mailing list
> Blindmath at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindmath_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for Blindmath:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindmath_nfbnet.org/mwhapples%40aim.com