KEYFINDER: A Prolog Program for Generating Experimental Designs

KEYFINDER is a menu-driven Prolog program that assists statisticians in the difficult task of generating blocked and/or fractional-replicate experimental designs in highly-constrained situations. Designs are constructed from sets of generators called design keys-. A depth-first search algorithm builds keys which yield designs matching detailed user specifications. Design parameters include the number of experimental units and the numbers of levels of the various block and treatment factors. Block factors may be combined into row-and-column, crossed or nested (split-plot) arrangements. The user can also specify the orders of treatment interactions that must remain (a) unaliased with treatment main effects and (b) unconfounded with blocks; further options are available to ensure that specific higher-order interactions of interest also remain estimable.
This article is from 'Computing Science and Statistics: Proceedings of the Symposium on the Interface Critical Applications of Scientific Computing: Biology, Engineering, Medicine, Speech Held in Seattle, Washington on 21-24 April 1991,' AD-A252 938, p348-351.