| Background: When implementing new statistical procedures, there is often a need for simple—and yet computationally efficient—ways of numerically evaluating composite distribution functions. If the statistical procedure must support calculations for censored and noncensored cases, those calculations should be carried out using efficient computational implementations of both definite and indefinite integrals (e.g., calculation of tail areas of distribution functions). Method: We developed a generic function evaluator such that users may specify a function using reverse Polish notation. As its argument the function evaluator takes a matrix of pointers and then applies the rows of this matrix to its internally defined stack of pointers. Accordingly, each row... |
