This blog will focus on statistical programming in the Clojure language using Incanter.
Incanter is a Clojure-based, R-like statistical computing and graphics environment for the JVM. At the core of Incanter are the Parallel Colt numerics library, a multithreaded version of Colt, and the JFreeChart charting library, as well as several other Java and Clojure libraries.
The motivation for creating Incanter is to provide a JVM-based statistical computing and graphics platform with R-like semantics and interactive-programming environment. Running on the JVM provides access to the large number of existing Java libraries for data access, data processing, and presentation. Clojure’s seamless integration with Java makes leveraging these libraries much simpler than is possible in R, and Incanter’s R-like semantics makes statistical programming much simpler than is possible in pure Java.
Motivation for a Lisp-based R-like statistical environment can be found in the paper Back to the Future: Lisp as a Base for a Statistical Computing System by Ihaka and Lang (2008). Incanter is also inspired by the now dormant Lisp-Stat (see the special volume in the Journal of Statistical Software on Lisp-Stat: Past, Present, and Future from 2005).
Motivation for a JVM-based Lisp can be found at the Clojure website, and screencasts of several excellent Clojure talks by the language’s creator, Rich Hickey, can be found at clojure.blip.tv.
David Edgar Liebke (liebke@incanter.org) is the author of Incanter. He is a developer and statistician at the Institute for Genome Sciences at the University of Maryland. He has a B.S. in cognitive science (UC San Diego), M.S. in applied mathematics and statistics (Georgetown), an M.B.A. (UC Irvine), and has returned, yet again, to school in order to pursue a Ph.D. in measurement and statistics at the University of Maryland.
9 responses so far ↓
Nicholas Chubrich // July 22, 2009 at 12:40 am |
Wonderful! Thanks for developing this! It works seamlessly…
incanter // July 23, 2009 at 7:56 pm |
Thanks Nicholas, I’m glad to hear it!
RJIH // August 15, 2009 at 7:15 pm |
Sweet, this I will have to look into! Might give me just that extra motivation I needed to finally learn Clojure: a good stats/prototyping environment to play around with. Thanks!
taotree // September 1, 2009 at 4:36 pm |
Is there a mailing list or forum or something for discussing/asking questions about Incanter? I’m interested in using it, and it’s nice to plug in to a support group.
Thanks!
incanter // September 1, 2009 at 4:51 pm |
There is no dedicated mailing list yet, but general questions can be posted to the Clojure Google group or the #clojure irc channel, and of course I’m happy to answer questions by email (liebke at gmail).
David
incanter // September 2, 2009 at 11:49 am |
taotree, based on your suggestion I decided to create a Google group for Incanter: http://groups.google.com/group/incanter
David
Lisp and statistics | FZ Blogs // September 6, 2009 at 7:30 am |
[...] I was browsing the blog of Incanter, a statistical computing and graphics environment for the JVM, I realized a couple of Lisp related [...]
Ivar Thorson // February 8, 2010 at 2:38 am |
After spending a few years as a lisper, I’m just getting into dabbling with Clojure and this looks absolutely great. Thanks for putting in the time to create (and document) this!
liebke // February 8, 2010 at 2:49 am |
Thank you, it’s been my pleasure :-)