The WinBUGS Development Interface (WBDev) has been designed to enable WinBUGS 1.4 users to implement their own specialized functions and (univariate) distributions by 'hard-wiring' them into the system via compiled Pascal code. The main reason for doing this is that 'hard-wired' components are both faster and much more flexible than their 'BUGS-language' counterparts. Please see the article here for full details and rationale.
You can download the WBDev interface from here. This is a new version as of September 2004. The only difference between this and the previous version, however, is that I have removed the encoded expiry date (March 31, 2005). This is because no further upgrades are anticipated in the near future, with the possible exception of introducing the facility to implement new multivariate distributions.
If you would like to share any new components that you have written using the WBDev interface with other WinBUGS users then please feel free to e-mail them to me and I will make them publicly available via this web-site (see the WBDev shared components page). For each submitted component I will need three things: (i) a copy of the Component Pascal module; (ii) a documentation file, preferably in "pdf" format; and (iii) the preferred BUGS-language name and the list of argument types for the new component, e.g. "new.function"(s, v). Please take steps to avoid your component(s) having the same BUGS-language name(s) as anyone else's, e.g. include your initials somewhere -- "djl.new.function", say. Please also remember to include details of the BUGS syntax for your new component(s) in the documentation.
| Last Updated September 2004 |
Site maintained by:
Dave Lunn
MRC Biostatistics Unit,
Institute of Public Health,
University Forvie site,
Robinson Way,
Cambridge CB2 0SR