ABSTRACT
My involvement in statistics research started at about the time that significant interactive computing power began to become available in university statistics departments. Up until that point, those of us using powerful electronic computers in universities generally were at the mercy of punch cards operating main frame computers, typically at relatively distant locations. This severely hindered the use of computers for assessing the performance of statistical methodology, particularly for developing new approaches. However, once computational experiments could be performed from one’s desk, and parameter settings adjusted as the results came in, vast new horizons opened up for methodological development.
