Whats new in OpenBUGS 3.0


New updaters

   Two univariate adaptive metropolis updaters UpdaterSCAAR and
UpdaterSDScale from the paper by Gareth Roberts and Jeff Rosenthal.
   
   Block updater for model with GMRF prior using sparse matrix algebra
as in Havard Rue book (work done by Jussi Alho). The sparse matrix       algebra uses the "taucs" library. At present we only have a version
of this library for Windows.
   
   
Writing and reading BUGS models from file

   Each class in the OpenBUGS software has got an externalize and an internalize method so the graphical model, updaters, monitors, random number generators etc can be stored in and read from files. When this feature settles down it will be used to implement check pointing, storing of active models and sending computation to multiple processors. The
user interface to this new feature only exists on Windows, consisting of
two new enties in the Model menu Externalize and Internalize. The Externalize options writes to the file "restart.bug" and the Internalize option reads from this file. An example of a restart file containg the "Rats model" with some monitors set is supplied with this distribution of
OpenBUGS.
   
   
New format of resource files

   OpenBUGS resource files can now be compiled and linked into the winbugs.exe file or the brugs.dll / brugs.so file. We have not tested the BRugs R functions with the new linked brugs.dll / brugs.so yet.
   
Fully linked versions

   Fully linked version of the brugs libary and bugs.exe are available. These will not load code files at run time or load resource files. The brugs library now exports a procedure CLI to implement the command line interface. There is no bugs.so file any more for the Linux version of OpenBUGS use brugs.so instead. There is a small C program CBugs.c to load the brugs.so shared library and call the CLI function. We do not know if this files compiles or works... Help is wanted here...
   

Pretty printer and latex printer

   The pretty printer will now produce nicely formatted BUGS code from a Doodle. Latex printer will produce something that looks a bit like a latex version of the BUGS model from either a checked (parsed) BUGS language model or a Doodle.


Random number generator

   The mersane twister algorithm TT800 is now used as the default random number generator. This generator has been run many times and its internal state at calls 10^12 apart has been stored. The generator can be initialized at these stored states by setting the processor index field of the "Compile options" dialog under the Model menu to a small integer value [0 .. 13] before compiling the model.
   
   
The multivariate CAR distribution is broken

   Sorry