PROCEEDINGS COMPSTAT 2004

Statistical computing provides the link between the statistical theory
and applied statistics. As at previous COMPSTATs, the scientific
programme covered all aspects of this link, from the development and
implementation of new statistical ideas through to user experiences and
software evaluation. Following extensive discussions, a number of
changes have been introduced by giving more focus to the individual
sessions, involve more people in the planning of sessions, and make
links with other societies as Interface or International Federation of
Classification Societies (IFCS) involved in statistical computing. The
proceedings should appeal to anyone working in statistics and using
computers, whether in universities, industrial companies, government
agencies, research institutes or as software developers.

This proceedings would not exist without the help of many people. Among
them I would like to thank especially to the SPC members D. Banks (USA),
H. Ekblom (S), P. Filzmoser (A), W. H\"ardle (D), J. Hinde (IRE),
F. Murtagh (UK), J. Nakano (JAP), A. Prat (E), A. Rizzi (I), G. Sawitzki
(D) and E. Wegman (USA); the session organizers D. Cook (USA), D. Banks
(IFCS, USA) C. Croux (B), L. Edler (D), V. Esposito Vinzi (I),
F. Ferraty (F), V. K\accent23urkov\'a (CZ), M. M\"uller (D), J. Nakano
(ARS IASC, JAP), H. Nyquist (S), D. Pe\ na (E), M. Schimek (A),
G. Tunnicliffe-Wilson (GB) and E. Wegman (Interface, USA); as well as to
all who contributed and/or refereed the papers.

Last but not least, I must sincerely thank my colleagues from Department
of Statistics of the Charles University, Institute of Computer Science
of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Technical University, Technical
University of Liberec and to Mme Anna Kot\v{e}\v{s}ovcov\'a from Conforg
Ltd. Without their substantial help neither this book nor the COMPSTAT
2004 would exist.

My final thanks go to Mme Bilkova and Mme Pickova, who retyped most of
the contributions and prepared the final volume, and Mme G. Keidel from
the Springer Verlag, Heidelberg, who extremely carefully checked the
final printing.

The CD contains two files, i.e.

   - Proceedings-COMPSTAT-2004.pdf   ...   intended for those who prefer
                                           PDF format

   - Proceedings-COMPSTAT-2004.zip   ...   intended for those who prefer
                                           PostScript format; the file
                                           is huge and therefore zipped


Prague May 15, 2004

Jaromir Antoch

