INQUA Working Group on Data-Handling Methods

Newsletter 10: July 1993

MVSP 2.1

I have recently released a new version of my program MVSP - A MultiVariate Statistical Package for the IBM-PC and compatibles. For those not familiar with it, MVSP performs a variety of ordination and cluster analyses. It provides an inexpensive yet easy means of analysing your data in fields ranging from ecology and geology to sociology and market research. MVSP is in use at hundreds of sites in over 45 countries.

The results of analyses using MVSP have been published in numerous journals, including Science, Nature, Ecology, Journal of Petroleum Geology, and Journal of Biogeography.

MVSP version 2.1 has several improvements over version 2.0:

1. Detrended correspondence analysis
2. Built-in dendrogram production - drawn automatically in either graphic or text mode
3. Improved printer support - can now output text and/or graphics on Epson dot-matrix, IBM Proprinter, HP Laserjet & Deskjet, HP Paintjet, and postscript laser printers, HP plotters, and .PCX bitmap files.
4. Data import and export - transfer data between MVSP and the following file formats: Lotus 1-2-3 and Symphony, Cornell Ecology Programs.
5. Protected mode version - directly access up to 16 mb of RAM memory, not just 640 k. Eliminates swapping to disk and dramatically speeds up analyses of large data sets. Only for computers with 80286 or higher microprocessors.
6. Save ordination scores to Lotus files - for further analysis or graphing.
7. Execute DOS commands - from the MVSP menu
8. Several improvements in the user interface & bug fixes