Date: Tue, 15 Apr 1997 21:07:29 -0700
Reply-To: "SAS & OS/2: THE PERFECT TEAM." <JAMES@UCRAC1.UCR.EDU>
Sender: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From: "SAS & OS/2: THE PERFECT TEAM." <JAMES@UCRAC1.UCR.EDU>
Subject: fwd:my package is better than yours...
From: SMTP%"bwest@VT.EDU" 15-APR-1997 07:54:00.80
To: JAMES
CC:
Subj: Interesting question
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 1997 10:07:51 +0600
Reply-To: Ben West <bwest@VT.EDU>
Sender: "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <SPSSX-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From: Ben West <bwest@VT.EDU>
Subject: Interesting question
To: Multiple recipients of list SPSSX-L <SPSSX-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
Hello all:
Surprisingly enough, I don't have a technical question for the group today.
As a matter of fact, things have been running quite smoothly lately.
However, I do have a question to propose that has boggled me....
Why is it that SPSS is used, almost exclusively, by folks in the social
sciences yet is used very seldom by people in other fields (i.e., natural,
life sciences)? Of course, I could be wrong in this observation, but that's
the way it appears. I'm in the natural sciences and most of my
counterparts use SAS, which, granted, is somewhat more versatile that SPSS.
However, I know of nobody in my circle of peers that is doing analyses that
couldn't be done just as well, and much more easily, with SPSS. I don't
mean to be criticizing SAS, it's a great program and I have used it from
time to time, but my primary statistical package is, and always will be, SPSS.
I know this may be somewhat trivial, but I have yet to find anyone that can
explain why SPSS is so dominant in the social sciences and yet almost
unheard of in other fields.... Anybody want to speculate?
****************************************************************
Ben West
Department of Fisheries and Wildlife
Virginia Tech
100 Cheatham Hall
Blacksburg, VA 24061
Phone -- (540)231-4458
Fax -- (540)231-7580
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