bengHN

3 ms·

1. 1.▲
   by bengHN 11y ago

   Unfortunately no, but a few brave souls have done so. It is slowly getting easier.
2. 2.▲
   by bengHN 11y ago

   As you mentioned, there are pros and cons to inventing the Stan DSL. Originally, we wanted a language that was not too different from the BUGS language because the BUGS family was what most applied Bayesians were using (if they weren't
3. 3.▲
   by bengHN 11y ago

   The number one thing in my opinion is that Stan's algorithm(s) for drawing from a posterior distribution produce samples that have much less dependence among adjacent draws than other simpler MCMC algorithms like Metropolis-Hastings or
4. 4.▲
   by bengHN 11y ago

   Also, the rstanarm[1] R package (disclaimer: that I co-wrote) will be released this month, which does not require the user to write any code in the Stan language. Instead, you specify the likelihood of the data (for a few popular regression