OpenBUGS is a

software application Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

for the Bayesian analysis of complex

statistical model A statistical model is a mathematical model that embodies a set of statistical assumptions concerning the generation of sample data (and similar data from a larger population). A statistical model represents, often in considerably idealized form ...

s using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods. OpenBUGS is the open source variant of

WinBUGS WinBUGS is statistical software for Bayesian analysis using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods. It is based on the BUGS ( Bayesian inference Using Gibbs Sampling) project started in 1989. It runs under Microsoft Windows, though it can als ...

( Bayesian inference Using

Gibbs Sampling In statistics, Gibbs sampling or a Gibbs sampler is a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm for obtaining a sequence of observations which are approximated from a specified multivariate probability distribution, when direct sampling is diff ...

). It runs under

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

and

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, whi ...

, as well as from inside the R statistical package. Versions from v3.0.7 onwards have been designed to be at least as efficient and reliable as WinBUGS over a range of test applications.

Differences from WinBUGS

In addition to the different licence and greater range of operating systems, a fundamental difference between OpenBUGS and WinBUGS is the way in which the expert system selects the updating algorithm to use for the class of full

conditional distribution In probability theory and statistics, given two jointly distributed random variables X and Y, the conditional probability distribution of Y given X is the probability distribution of Y when X is known to be a particular value; in some cases the ...

of each node. While WinBUGS defines one algorithm for each possible class, there is no limit to the number of algorithms that OpenBUGS can use, allowing greater flexibility and extensibility. The user can select the updater to be used for each node after compilation. Further differences are detailed on the OpenBUGS website.

Programming language

The

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the ...

of OpenBUGS is written in the

Component Pascal Component Pascal is a programming language in the tradition of Niklaus Wirth's Pascal, Modula-2, Oberon and Oberon-2. It bears the name of the language Pascal and preserves its heritage, but is incompatible with Pascal. Instead, it is a minor ...

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language. The description of a programming ...

and is dependent on the Component Pascal libraries provided by Oberon Microsystems as part of the Blackbox Component Framework. The development tools are available as open source. Binaries of the current version of OpenBUGS are available for Microsoft Windows, and the previous version for

, it can also run under WINE for Linux. Installation problems, development and usage questions are discussed at the OpenBUGS Bulletin Board. Attempts to port OpenBUGS to

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

with the Gardens Point Component Pascal were given up in favor of a new portable implementation called JAGS. The BUGS language is the language that specifies the model code. It is parsed by OpenBUGS, which then creates an executable (compiled code) that generates a

sample Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of ...

from the posterior distribution when run. OpenBUGS was designed to run together with S-PlusBUGS 0.5 Manual, date 1996-08-14
/ref> and the BUGS language is similar to the

S programming language S is a statistical programming language developed primarily by John Chambers and (in earlier versions) Rick Becker and Allan Wilks of Bell Laboratories. The aim of the language, as expressed by John Chambers, is "to turn ideas into software, quic ...

. OpenBUGS works well together with R; the R2OpenBUGS or BRugs packages provides some interoperability, and R modules help further analyses.

References

GitHub GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, cont ...

as noted in the pag
Future Developments
which still can be found on

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

.
OpenBugs
at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

{{Statistical software Free Bayesian statistics software Numerical programming languages Monte Carlo software

Differences from WinBUGS

Programming language

References

External links