OptiPath is continually under development and testing. Please use it at your own risk. It is performing well for us on a Windows XP Home Edition operating system. If you have any difficulties or questions, please let us know.
The documentation for the software is also continually in development and may be incomplete. Please check the documentation version number if you want to know when the documentation was last updated (the version number is simply the date).
Getting Started outlines a step-by-step procedure for doing a seriation from start to finish.
Files are the permanent repository of your data on your computer system. Normally OptiPath works with the default file, OptiPath.ops, and you will not be concerned with files (unless you want to backup your database). Instead you will be working with data sets and seriations.
Data sets are different sets of archaeological data that you want to analyze. You may have as many data sets as you want and OptiPath provides facilities for adding/deleting/editing/switching data sets. There is an option to import data sets from Microsoft Excel and to export data to Excel. OptiPath stores multiple data sets in a single database file (named OptiPath.ops by default).
Seriations are different scenarios you might create on the same data set. For example you might try seriating the same data set first using occurrence seriation and then trying optimal path seriation. OptiPath provides facilities for adding/deleting/editing/switching seriations.
Artifacts are the items being seriated.
Assemblages are collections of artifacts (for frequency seriation).
Features are the attributes being used to distinguish one artifact from another.
Data are the values or measurements of features for artifacts.
Seriate your artifacts or assemblages.
Results are the results of seriating.
Tables are a standard way of presenting data in OptiPath. Be aware that any information you enter into a row of a table will not be saved or take effect until you place the cursor in another row!
The optimal path seriation technique in OptiPath is taken from a paper by Brett & Fred Shepardson which has been submitted for publication. The software also includes other seriation techniques such as occurrence seriation, nominal seriation, discrete seriation and frequency seriation. All of these take advantage of OptiPath's heuristic optimization algorithms. There is also an option to build your own custom seriation technique using OptiPath's algorithms. We actually recommend the custom approach (if you don't want to use the optimal path technique) and the documentation we are preparing will explain how to use such features as normalization, weights, randomization, metrics (distance functions), data types (measured, classed, ranked), transition penalties, and attributes for data earlier and later than that in the data set and for zeroes and blanks. OptiPath allows you to handle each feature in its own way (one might use classed data and another measured data).
Please let us know what you think of the OptiPath software. Any bugs you find, any suggestions you have for improving the interface or the functionality. We welcome it all. Thank you.