Erwin's StarOffice Tango

Just switch! - Statistical Package for StarOffice
Today I want to show you a StarOffice add-on that we are using within Sun. It is NOT available as a product, but if you think something like this is useful, we might make it externally available at some point. Just give me feedback!

As I mentioned in my last blog entry, the StarOffice API is pretty powerful. The API allows adding very sophisticated add-on components written in C++, Java or Basic. The statistical package that I show here was developed using the Java technology. The following screenshot, for example, shows how one calls the linear regression function:

You have to select the data ranges ...

... choose the graph types that should be included ...

... and define the output area ...

The final result looks like this:

As I said before, the statistical package is just an internal tool at the moment, but I'd love to hear your feedback anyway!
( Apr 25 2005, 11:30:09 AM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [22]

Kommentare:

Definitely release it. Not only will it highlight SO/OOo to more in the financial/ scientific/ academic fields but will also show others the possibilities of AddOns. And maybe even encourage a few to provide their own interesting AddOns. Hopefully this could be provided as part of a plugin manager where a download site could provide a list of possibilities.

CPH

Gesendet von CPH am April 25, 2005 at 12:00 PM CEST #

Very useful. I need it absolutely for my student, they're working with MS Office due to the lack of this fonction in OOo ! If you publish it, my University will uninstall MS Office...

Gesendet von Flo am April 25, 2005 at 02:28 PM CEST #

It will resolve the major complain of my students against SO/OO: the regression plot and data within the xy graph, just like E... A must have for academic use.

Gesendet von AsterixUT am April 25, 2005 at 02:54 PM CEST #

Wow! Our company has tens of thousands of licenses for Crystal Ball and Minitab. I wonder how many would be unnecessary if a freely available add-in were released?

Gesendet von sysadmn am April 25, 2005 at 05:41 PM CEST #

Yes, great, and greatly needed. This has been a showstopper for college students (business class require regression analysis -- imagine that...)

Gesendet von Christopher Mahan am April 25, 2005 at 06:42 PM CEST #

Release it please !! It is the bigger problem with OpenOffice/StarOffice for the schools I know : no way to do regressions => unusable for experiments, or exercises where datas are given, and a result must be found using these datas...

Gesendet von Pinaraf am April 25, 2005 at 08:56 PM CEST #

We want it ! It looks like very well.
It is a very very good idea to do it !
Can you release it, please!
I need it for my scientifics students.
Have you got an other secret project ?
Thanks for your work

A teacher of MSOffice/OOo/StarOffice in a french university
JP Martin

Gesendet von Martin am April 25, 2005 at 11:54 PM CEST #

This would be great. Not only will it show people what can be done with add-ons, it will also be very useful for the scientific community.

Gesendet von Ben am April 26, 2005 at 12:31 PM CEST #

Thanks a lot for the feedback! This is very helpful! Best regards, Erwin

Gesendet von Erwin Tenhumberg am April 27, 2005 at 06:22 PM CEST #

Systems Manager for a medium sized engineering company by day, I am in the process of studying "Quantitative business Analysis" as part of an MBA programme. This required me to purchase an educational version of Microsoft Office (as a business, and personally, I have standardised on StarOffice/Openoffice). I don't like it. I find it hard to believe how intrusive the Microsoft Office interface has become.

The availability of this plugin would not have prevented this purchase (as I am unwilling to gamble with my expensive education, and the course is based on Microsoft Office and Statpro), but it would allow me to carry my new found skills back to my business.

I am not going to re-install Microsoft Office, nor pay for the expensive "Statpro" full license. I would however like to apply my new found skills in anger.

I found this page, not by accident but, because it is exactly what I'm looking for. This functionality will come to Staroffice/Openoffice at some point. The sooner, and more affordable, the better.

It would be very useful to increase the acceptance of StarOffice/Openoffice amongst number crunchers in the educational and business environments.

<font size=1>Pull your finger out for my nospam address.</font>

Gesendet von Paul Chambers am Mai 04, 2005 at 07:50 PM CEST #

Dear Mr. 1) I am working at an university. The main problem of OOo is its adaptation to science courses. There is a lack of statistical functions and charts with real error bar (mean +/- SD). As pointed out previously, students can not use OOo to present scientific data. 2) Microsoft can always "offer" MO, it can not offer statistical or bibliographic packages. Thus this kind of addin greatly reinforce the financial interest to switch to OOo. 3) Take care of this address. It's the most complete menu driven, open source statistical software. Help this project to switch to an OOo addin could be wonderfull. http://www.statpages.org/miller/openstat

Gesendet von Viale Fabrice am Mai 27, 2005 at 11:28 AM CEST #

Well, this would be a really nice Addition that would actually make StarOffice usable for me! I am nut studying rocket science nor genealogy, but even in some simple laboratory we need this type of statistical analysis! Of course our professors recommand MS Office and Excel since they know it, and everyone is used to. I hate it, but there is not really an alternative. Where can i get this AddOn ?

Gesendet von sammy am Oktober 05, 2005 at 11:12 PM CEST #

Hello there, I'm just looking back in (see my earlier comments above) to see if there are any developments on making this package available publically (note: I don't necessarily mean free). I see this type of add in functionality as critical to the widespread use of StarOffice in business and education. I've had a look around, and as far as I can see there is nothing available yet. This is one last plea for information before being forced to re-visit the Micro$oft based solution. Thanks in advance. Paul Chambers

<font size=1>Pull your finger out for my nospam address.</font>

Gesendet von Paul Chambers am November 24, 2005 at 01:51 PM CET #

Statistic Package I would REALLLLLLY love to get my hands on that statistical package...it is the only reason that I have remaining to use excel over staroffice calc (profession:chemist) thanks.

Gesendet von Anthony Moncrief am Mai 02, 2006 at 12:25 AM CEST #

Hi, I really need very much this package, when release it? Please send me information where I can donwload it! Thanks a lot

Gesendet von Diego Bottallo am Mai 26, 2006 at 05:10 PM CEST #

ME WANT! Please make this available to the general public.

Gesendet von Roger am Juni 07, 2006 at 09:26 PM CEST #

This is great of course, but why reinvent the wheel? There has been an interface between R (www.r-project.org) and E...l for quite a while now. Something similar should be possible with Open/StarOffice ...

Gesendet von R. Bertin am Juli 22, 2006 at 02:01 AM CEST #

allowed

Gesendet von 86.123.109.90 am Dezember 09, 2006 at 01:27 PM CET #

This is exactly what my Dad needs. He recently went back to school for his masters degree. I Tried to switch him over to OpenOffice and Linux but he couldn't let go of Excel. He needed his add-ins like Solver and Crystal Ball. I got him to use openSuse for his operating system but he still has to have Excel run under wine. Oh and he rants and raves about DOE. I know he would use this! He works for GE and they have Crystal Ball on all their employee computers. If something like this is released I am sure it will provide good potential for Star Office and related office suits to gain marked share where it counts.

Gesendet von Stephen Franks am Juni 11, 2007 at 06:23 PM CEST #

It's extremely a good idea if you release this statistical add-ons to StarOffice users. I'm a graduate student who needs to do a number of statistical analyses for reserach papers and thesis. Commercial statistical packages such as SPSS, SAS and Stata are too expensive for us to acquire, even if they offer the so-called "grad plan" which is way above the financial ability of most students. The affordable solution is to use MS Excel for the time being but its statistical capabilities are limited and not user-friendly. That's why I think your in-house StarOffice statistical add-on will provide one more and better option for all students. Please release it as soon as possible. Many thanks.

Gesendet von Charles Mann am August 20, 2007 at 04:18 AM CEST #

please do get this kind of product..
we wud really appreciate it..
im an mba student and the costs of professional tools for MS office is killing

Karan

Gesendet von Karan Checker am Oktober 10, 2007 at 07:38 AM CEST #

I need this feature on Star / Open Office. Where can I get this or any other tool for doing Monte Carlo Simulation and other statistical techniques on Star / Open Office

Regards
Sundeep

Gesendet von Sundeep Kapila am Juni 09, 2008 at 04:41 PM CEST #