Validation of R

From: Paul, David A [mailto:paulda at BATTELLE.ORG]

For software, our internal standards basically say that

(1) COTS (Com'l Off The Shelf software) developed by a
company having both a long history of selling high-quality
products and good QA doesn't need extensive from-scratch
validation, only validation of simpler routines like the
computation of means, variances, linear regression models,
&etc.  (After all, how would anyone really validate what, 
say, PROC NLMIXED yields in a complex growth-curve application?)

Too bad that can't be edited just a bit:

(1) OTS (Off the Shelf software) developed by a group having both a
long history of creating high-quality products and good QA which
doesn't need extensive from-scratch validation, only validation of
simpler routines like the computation of means, variances, linear
regression models, etc.  (After all, how would anyone really validate
what, say, nlme(), yields in a complex growth-curve application, other
than one of the originators of one of the families of NLME
algorithms?)

best,
-tony

A.J. Rossini rossini at u.washington.edu http://software.biostat.washington.edu/ 
Biostatistics, U Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center 
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