IND Version 2.1 tree software available

[Wray Buntine]

IND Version 2.1 - creation and manipulation of decision trees from data
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A common approach to supervised classification and prediction in
artificial intelligence and statistical pattern recognition
is the use of decision trees.  A tree is "grown" from
data using a recursive partitioning algorithm to create a tree
which (hopefully) has good prediction of classes on new data.
Standard algorithms are CART (by Breiman, Friedman, Olshen and Stone)
and Id3 and its successor C4.5 (by Quinlan).   More recent techniques
are Buntine's smoothing and option trees, Wallace and Patrick's MML method,
and Oliver and Wallace's MML decision graphs which extend the tree 
representation to graphs.  IND reimplements and integrates these
methods.  The newer methods produce more accurate class probability 
estimates that are important in applications like diagnosis.

IND is applicable to most data sets consisting of
independent instances, each described by a fixed length vector of
attribute values.  An attribute value may be a number, one of a
set of attribute specific symbols, or omitted.  One of the
attributes is delegated the "target" and IND grows trees 
to predict the target.  Prediction can then be done on new data or
the decision tree printed out for inspection.

IND provides a range of features and styles with convenience
for the casual user as well as fine-tuning for the advanced user or
those interested in research.  Advanced
features allow more extensive search, interactive control and display
of tree growing, and Bayesian and MML
algorithms for tree pruning and smoothing.  These often produce
more accurate class probability estimates at the leaves.
IND also comes with a comprehensive experimental control suite.

IND consist of four basic kinds of routines; data manipulation
routines, tree generation routines, tree testing routines, and
tree display routines.  The data manipulation routines are used
to partition a single large data set into smaller training and
test sets.  The generation routines are used to build
classifiers.  The test routines are used to evaluate classifiers
and to classify data using a classifier.  And the display
routines are used to display classifiers in various formats.

IND is written in K&R C, with controlling scripts in the "csh"
shell of UNIX, and extensive UNIX man entries.  It is designed to be 
used on any UNIX system, although it has only been thoroughly tested 
on SUN platforms.  IND comes with a manual giving a guide to tree methods,
and pointers to the literature, and several companion documents.


Availability
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IND Version 2.0 will shortly be available through NASA's COSMIC
facility.  IND Version 2.1 is available strictly as unsupported
beta-test software.  If you're interested in obtaining a beta-test copy, 
with no obligation on your part to provide feedback, contact

	Wray Buntine
	NASA Ames Research Center  
	Mail Stop 269-2           
	Moffett Field, CA, 94035 
	email:  wray at kronos.arc.nasa.gov