New Parsimony Analysis Program
Members of the systematics community will be interested to know of the
availability of a new parsimony analysis software package for MS-DOS based
microcomputers. The following details were obtained from the programs's
author, Pablo Goloboff:
PEE-WEE/NONA
Pee-Wee and NONA are two programs for parsimony analysis. NONA searches
for shortest trees (according to prior weights defined by the user). Pee-Wee
implements the weighting method proposed by Goloboff (1993), searching for
trees which imply the characters to be maximally reliable, and are shortest
according to those implied weights. Otherwise, they are similar. Both
programs run under MS-DOS (versions for other operating systems are
anticipated).
Features:
** 32 bit: can use all available memory (16 bit versions available).
** can run data sets of any size, as long as there's memory available
(biggest data set tested: 4400 taxa x 150 characters).
** Hennig86/Clados/Dada compatible.
** heuristic searches with variety of options (using subtree-pruning
regrafting of tree-bisection reconnection); commands to 'jump'
between islands of optimal trees.
** trees can be treated as fully dichotomous or as collapsed. When trees
treated as collapsed, only branches supported under every possible
optimization retained (optionally, the looser interpretation of
Hennig86 or PAUP can be used, retaining also branches supported
under some optimizations).
** extensive tree diagnostic facilities (with character names implemented
as in Clados/Dada); calculation of consensus (with all or only some
taxa included); character-based tree comparisons; polymorphisms in
terminals implemented.
** reasonably slower than Hennig86; much faster than PAUP, especially for
large data sets.
For more details contact the author of the program:
Pablo A. Goloboff
Dept. of Entomology
American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West at 79th Street
New York, NY 10024
Telephone: 212 769 5619
Fax: 212 769 5277
E-mail: goloboff at amnh.org
