Recent changes to CAST

Release 6.0
24th November 2016
The stand-alone version of CAST was released to solve the problem of browsers abandoning support for Java applets. The functionality of the old CAST_manager.jar program was also combined with CAST itself.
Release 5.6
16th August 2015
The video lectures for the introductory business statistics e-book were updated and a few bugs were fixed.
Release 5.5
11th July 2015
The user-interface was modernised with more subtle colours. The video versions of pages in the introductory general and bio-statistics e-books were updated as single video lectures. Summary pages were added to the mathematical statistics e-book.
Release 5.4
20th Nov 2014
Video versions of pages were added to the introductory business statistics and bio-statistics e-books. A new e-book about mathematical statistics was added. Many data sets in the introductory e-books were updated to more recent ones.
Release 5.3
20th Dec 2013
Added video versions of pages in general introductory e-book. A "manager" program that is included with downloaded copies of CAST applies updates and simplifies creation of customised e-books.
Release 5.2
13th Dec 2011
The main change in release 5.2 is the addition of summary versions of all pages in the introductory CAST e-books. Tabs that extend into the banner switch between full and summary versions. Complete chapters in full or summary format can be printed from a new icon at the right of the banner. Changes to the underlying CAST framework make translation easier and give better compatibility with Chrome.
Release 5.1
20th July 2011
Release 5.1 completed the restructuring of CAST's underlying framework to make it easier to do customisation and translation. Work has begun on translating an introductory e-book into two different languages.
Release 5.0
7th Feb 2011
The main changes in this release were in the framework underlying CAST to make it easier for others to create customised and translated CAST e-books. Although the changes were extensive, they had very minor impact on the e-books from the users' perspective.
Release 4.2
26th Oct 2010
There were few changes in this release. A few exercises were added (about time series and hypothesis testing), a section was added about index numbers and there were a couple of extra pages about hypothesis testing.
Release 4.1
2nd March 2010
A new e-book about design and analysis of experiments for agriculture and biology was added. The e-book about industrial experiments was also improved. There were no significant changes to the other e-books.
Release 4.0
11th Nov 2009
A more modern and simpler user-interface starts CAST. The requirements to register an email address and login with a PIN code were finally abandoned. An extra chapter of exercises was added about standard errors and confidence intervals. The lecturing e-books were rewritten to only display the interactive diagrams; usage notes can be shown with a mouse click and it is possible to display pages (without banner or table of contents) directly from PowerPoint presentations. Alternative versions can be displayed from a menu at the top left of many pages.
Release 3.5
15th Nov 2008
A new Exercises e-book was added to this release. It contains exercises about descriptive and exploratory statistics; exercises about inference will be added in a later release. The startup procedure is also simpler and CAST tries to remember PIN codes from one use to the next.
Release 3.4
10th Oct 2007
The main changes to CAST in this version have been cosmetic. In all interactive diagrams, the buttons, checkboxes, scrollbars and sliders now match those of the operating system (Windows, Macintosh, etc.) that is used. The old 4-digit PIN codes have been replaced by 5-digit ones and these must be renewed every 6 months. However CAST can now be run without an internet connection and the login procedure works well with all browsers.
Release 3.3
10th Aug 2007
A new Multiple Regression e-book was added, based on Advanced CAST from release 3.2, but without most of the theory and expanded to include full GLMs with matrix notation for the models. An Experimental Design e-book was also added, aimed mostly at industrial experiments. There were various improvements to the main CAST e-books, especially about standard errors, percentiles, lurking variables and the presentation of tables.
Release 3.2
1st Dec 2006
In the main CAST versions, new material was added about standard errors, including bootstrap estimation of error distributions. The section about normal distributions was improved and a section about analysis of randomised block designs was added, including multiple comparisons. In Advanced CAST, three sections of a new chapter about general linear models were written.
Release 3.1
17th Feb 2006
In the main CAST versions, the introduction chapter was expanded and improved. A section about percentiles was added and the standard deviation pages were improved. In Advanced CAST, a new section about regression diagnostics was added and packaged with regression anova into chapter 2. A third chapter was added covering multiple regression with two explanatory variables. The free internet-login version now supports the Safari and Firefox browsers.
Release 3.0
1st Feb 2005
There were few changes to the main introductory CAST versions in this release. However a new version containing advances statistical methods has been started. Advanced CAST currently contains a single chapter that teaches about Analysis of Variance, including distributions and inference about a single variance.
Release 2.6
1st Sept 2004
The material in the old Comparing Groups chapter was revised and split into a new Comparing Two Groups chapter and an Anova chapter into which the regression anova material was also moved. The Contingency Tables chapter was also expanded and renamed Independence. Business versions of these chapters were also added. A few improvements were also made to the first chapter (mainly about Stem and Leaf plots and Standard Deviation).
Release 2.5
7th May 2004
The Regression Models and Inference chapter was rewritten and expanded for release 2.5 (and a Business version of the chapter was created). A section about regression diagnostics was added and the analysis of variance section was expanded considerably.
Release 2.4
31st Dec 2003
The Experimental Design chapter was rewritten and expanded with greater coverage of lurking variables and simple experimental designs, including completely randomised, randomised block, factorial designs, interaction, linear factor effects and least squares estimation.
Release 2.3
3rd July 2003
The Inference chapter was substantially revised and split into Estimation and Hypothesis Testing chapters. Business versions of them were created.
Release 2.2
13th March 2003
Major rewrites of the Categorical and Sampling Distributions chapters, and Business versions of them created. Control chart material from release 1.3 added back as a new module.
Release 2.1
4th September 2002
New user interface. Compatible with recent browsers. Major rewrite of univariate, bivariate and time series chapters with the time series chapter doubled in length. Initial chapters of a new Business version of CAST. Draft extra multiple regression module. (CAST 2.0 was never fully released.)
Release 1.3
12th March 2001
Virtually identical to Release 1.2 but a stand-alone version may be purchased.
Release 1.2
23rd February 2001
New initial screen; clicking 'Continue' runs CAST in a new window without toolbar or other adornments at the top.
A new nonlinear regression module is accessible from the initial screen. A draft simulation module is also available.
Release 1.1
7th June 2000
Added a new version of CAST for biometrics students. Examples and scenarios are from the biological, agricultural and health sciences.
The corresponding version for use in lectures is also included.
Release 1.0
17th January 2000
Section 9.7 added (conditional probability, Bayes theorem and the chi-squared test).
Release 0.9
21st October 1999
Sections 9.5 and 9.6 (anova for regression and comparing groups) were added.
CAST now requires users to register with the CAST web site before starting.
Release 0.8
18th August 1999
Sections 9.3 and 9.4 (Models and inference for two-group numerical and categorical data) were added to the student version. Lecturing versions of Sections 9.1 to 9.4 were also added.
The index and list of data sets were fixed when using MS Windows.
15th July 1999 Sections 9.1 and 9.2 (Normal linear models and linear model inference) were added to the student version.
22nd June 1999 A second version of CAST was added for use in lectures. This version has the interactive diagrams from the student version without the surrounding text and page headings. The diagrams were also enlarged somewhat.
The initial screen was changed; the version (student or lecturing) can be selected from one option in this page before entering the main content of CAST. Eventually there will be further versions of CAST targeted at different audiences.
2nd June 1999 Sections 6 to 8 were revised (their first editing since being written). The working was tightened and a few diagrams were added.


©2015 W. Douglas Stirling, Massey University