What do you use to program / run probability simulations etc?

stigmata · #1 02-01-2005, 10:42 AM

Hi,

was just reading an earlier post about solving probabilities of a bar game, which required running of simulations to obtain a solution. I was wondering what people used to do this? What languages & packages?

I have some Perl experience, so I would naturally tend to do run simulations in a Perl script. I guess there are better alternatives though? Anything that might be easy for a non-programmer with Perl skills?

Cheers.

Indiana · #2 02-01-2005, 11:27 AM

I would personally use S-Plus. You could also use R which is a free version of S-Plus and can be downloaded from the Univ. of Wisconsin Statistics website.

Us who are statisticians for a living use SAS for ordinary data analyses, but S-Plus or R for the simulations.

Indiana

Paul2432 · #3 02-01-2005, 04:37 PM

Probably not the best tool, but I use Microsoft Excel and VBA. I probably only do 3-4 simulations per year at most.

Paul

jason1990 · #4 02-01-2005, 05:23 PM

I use MATLAB.

gaming_mouse · #5 02-01-2005, 06:31 PM

I know a bunch of languages, and I think Java is the easiest. If you can learn perl, you can learn Java. But if you just want to run simple sims, perl is fine too. Don't buy a nail gun when a hammer will suffice.

blank frank · #6 02-01-2005, 07:53 PM

I've used both Java and R to run poker simulations. I find that R is easier to program in, but Java is faster. This is typical of computer languages, I find.

gaming_mouse · #7 02-01-2005, 08:09 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I've used both Java and R to run poker simulations. I find that R is easier to program in, but Java is faster. This is typical of computer languages, I find.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've never heard of R, but Java is pretty easy IMO. Especially compared to something like C or C++. It's a nice language.

Indiana · #8 02-02-2005, 10:19 AM

I used to be a C and Java programmer before I was a stastician. Splus/R is better for simulations on poker because it is built to easily deal with large vectors and simulating binomials and such...C++ would be a pain in the ass to do such things and takes more time to get going...

Indiana