The accuracy of \textit{Mathematica 4} as a statistical package (Q5943414)

The author presents the characteristics of the statistical part of \textit{Mathematica 4}. He writes that \textit{Mathematica} is not a statistical package. To perform the procedures commonly used by statisticians (probit, logit, GLM, robust regression, etc.) in \textit{Mathematica} would require a large amount of programming effort, as would the implementation of the ability to handle missing observations and other facilities that users of statistical packages take for granted. The only reason a statistician would need \textit{Mathematica}, at present, is that a typical statistical package simply cannot provide sufficient accuracy for a particular problem. Finally the author states that by virtue of its variable precision in arithmetic and symbolic power, \textit{Mathematica's} performance on these reliability tests exceeds any finite-precision statistical package.