JuliaLang/METADATA.jl — pull request #1667 by brian-j-smith (2014-11-02 22:07:30+00:00)
Title: Register Mamba

I am interested in registering our *Mamba* (Markov Chain Monte Carlo for Bayesian Analysis) package in the official **julia** repository.

Mamba consists of three main components: 1) a collection of MCMC sampling functions, 2) statistical and graphical tools for convergence assessment and posterior inference of sampler output, and 3) a basic, but general, syntax for model specification and integration of the first two components. Detailed package documentation can be found at http://mambajl.readthedocs.org/.

The sampling functions are credited in the documentation to the individuals who originally developed the algorithms upon which they are based. The sampler output tools are based on my experience developing the *boa* **R** package (http://www.jstatsoft.org/v21/i11); and the interface and integration come from prior experience developing MCMC algorithms for other **R** packages (http://www.jstatsoft.org/v25/i10) and various applications.

The backstory on the package is that I originally started writing it in **R** before knowing anything about **julia**. After realizing that the performance was not quite there in **R** to achieve my design goals, I started looking around for other software to use. Then, earlier this year, I found **julia**, decided that it checked off all the right boxes, and began rewriting and developing the package in it.

More recently, I have been contacted by @goedman who is interested in linking *Mamba* to his *Stan* (https://github.com/goedman/Stan.jl) and *Jags* (https://github.com/goedman/Jags.jl) packages. Having *Mamba* in the official repository would help facilitate that and make it more accessible to users.

Please let me know if there are any questions about or suggestions for the package. Thank you for your consideration as well as your great work on **julia**.

Brian