Re: [Gretl-users] web interface to Gretl
On Wed, 5 Sep 2012, Rodrigo Alfaro Arancibia wrote:
I use Gretl for teaching applied econometrics. Last semester, some
students asked about the possibility of having Gretl on Ipad (I do not
have one) Anyway, I found that question on the web and it seems that
there is not plan for compiling Gretl on that OS
(http://lists.wfu.edu/pipermail/gretl-users/2011-May/006250.html).
No. The gretl user interface is not designed for tablet use (this
would require a complete redesign). And while tablets are nice for
some things they are fundamentally the wrong tool for scientific
computing.
However, an alternative for Ipad's users is to have gretl on the
web.
Some examples: Latex (http://docs.latexlab.org/,
http://www.scribtex.com/) and Octave
(http://weboctave.mimuw.edu.pl/weboctave/web/,
http://www.ms.uky.edu/~statweb/testmatlab.html). Is it possible to
consider a web interface to Gretl?
It's conceivable, for some unspecified future date, given the new
broadway backend for GTK 3 -- see
http://blogs.gnome.org/alexl/2011/03/15/gtk-html-backend-update/ but
don't hold your breath! Besides, to make this practical for
thousands (or more) students around the world would require that
somebody, somewhere make available servers with vast processing
power via a huge internet pipe. Who is going to do that? Are you
volunteering?
For the next few years, at least, I would say that students who want
to study econometrics in a practical way simply need to have the
right tool, namely a laptop or desktop computer. These are available
for about the same price as an iPad.
Allin Cottrell