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announcement.txt
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The Zelig core team is pleased to announce the alpha release of Zelig 4.
Designated as the "Developer Update", Zelig 4 offers a wide-range of improvements to ease the process of adding new statistical models to the already extensive Zelig software suite. Significantly, this release is packaged with a brand-new API, geared towards reducing the complexity and length of Zelig's development functions - the zelig2, param and qi methods. In addition to this, Zelig now brandishes a package-creator (zelig.skeleton) that operates in the same vein as R's core function "package.skeleton".
In addition to changes in the development toolkit, Zelig has now been split across 7 distinct packages. This change has been made to refine the scope of Zelig and its add-ons. In particular, this restructuring of Zelig into a full software suite allows developers to contribute, develop and repair add-on packages without tinkering with the Zelig API and core functionality.
While this release's prime focus has been improving the developer toolkit and restructuring the software suite, Zelig 4 offers an end-user experience completely identical to previous versions. That is, zelig's basic functions - zelig, setx and sim - ostensibly remain unchanged in functionality for available statistical models.
For full details concerning changes between Zelig 3.5 and Zelig 4, please refer to:
http://zeligdev.github.com/
New Features
------------
Some of the new available features are:
A revised developer API. The primary developer methods - zelig2, param and sim - have been reimplemented to use a sleeker, simpler API. For information, please read the Zelig developer's manual found here:
http://zeligdev.github.com/files/booklet.pdf
The core package has been restructured and minimized. In particular, Zelig core now contains only code essential to its operation, while all non-essential tasks have been made into specific R-packages. For a complete list of official Zelig packages, please refer to:
https://github.com/zeligdev
Development tools for contributors have been added to the core package. In particular, the "zelig.skeleton" function is packaged within Zelig-core in order to facilitate the rapid development of new Zelig packages.
The Zelig software suite has grown to include a total of 7 R-packages. This change offers a simple and easy method for ensuring that development and bug-fixing within any particular Zelig add-on will leave the remainder of the Zelig software suite unchanged.
A hook API has been integrated into the core package, in order to reduce the necessity to directly alter the zelig, setx and sim methods.
Roxygen-compliant documentation has become standard in all Zelig packages. This offers an easy way to manage Rd documentation, dependencies and exports from within the R code itself. That is, documentation is more tightly paired with the actual R code. For more information about Roxygen, please refer to:
http://roxygen.org/
GitHub
------
Zelig is now on GitHub! Fork an add-on package or contribute bug-finds today!
For a full listing of official packages and their repositories, please see:
https://github.com/zeligdev
Links
-----
The following comprises a list of relevant information for Zelig 4:
* Website: http://zeligdev.github.com/
* Package Repositories: https://github.com/zeligdev/
* Installation Guide: http://zeligdev.github.com/files/zelig.pdf
* Zelig Manual: http://zeligdev.github.com/#install
* Available and Missing Add-on Packages: http://zeligdev.github.com/#models
Questions
---------
For any particular questions on developing new Zelig models, please send all mail to: