conca@handel.cs.colostate.edu (michael vincen conca) (01/12/90)
This isn't your usual comp.unix.questions type question, but I wasn't
sure where else to post this, so here goes...
I recently became the assistant systems administrator for a small group
of researchers here on campus. What they do is survey thousands of people,
scan the results, run them through SPSS-X (a statistical package), and
then produce a 100+ page report.
At this time, they are taking the results from SPSS-X, downloading them
to IBM PC clones, and using Word 5.0 to produce the reports. There are
a few problems with this process:
It takes time to transfer the data from SPSS-X to the PC's.
There are hundreds of variables and the macro on Word takes forever to run.
The report is so long, we have to split it into 5 parts for it to fit
on the PC's.
This wasn't so bad in the past, but now we are producing about one report
per week, and we are starting to get behind.
Therefore, I am hoping there is some sort of publishing package out there
that will run under unix. Here are some of the requirements:
1) It must run on an HP9000/835 running under HP-UX 7.0 (For those
who are unsure, this is Sys V Unix, not BSD).
2) It must have a macro facility similar to Word's. For example,
it must be able to accept a number into a variable and then
decide what to print based on the value of that variable.
3) It must be able to print to our LaserJet 2000.
4) The user must be able to define different fonts and point sizes
within the report.
5) It must produce very professional output.
6) It would be nice, but not necessary, if it produced pie charts
and bar graphs, or if it had the capability to accept these
from another program.
Those are basically the main ones. If anyone knows of any program that can
do anything like this, even if it only meets some of the requirements,
PLEASE send me the name and manufacturer of it. Also, if anybody knows
of a combo of packages that will do this (like a good text handler plus
a powerful text formatter), send me that too.
Thanks,
Mike
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Mike Conca, Computer Science Dept. * conca@handel.cs.colostate.edu
Colorado State University * conca@129.82.102.32
'Back off man - I understand computers!'