Program Description
Dendro Tools is a collection of specialized computer programs that can assist a dendroclimatologist in developing and analyzing estimates of paleoclimate from tree rings. The program is written in a combination of Visual Basic.NET and R. The main interface is written in Visual Basic.NET, which takes prewritten R script files, edits them, runs R in the background, ingests the output from R, and displays it all from a user-friendly interface.
Dendro Tools is an open source project, licensed under the GNU General Public License (see Program Notes below). Any problems that have been detected in the current version of the Dendro Tools are listed on the "Current Version Status" page. Details about the Dendro Tools open source project are also on that webpage including how to submit new or revised code.
There are two different download options for the program. The first is the typical Windows operating system setup (Download Setup). The second option is for those interested in the source code (Download Source Code), and is not required in order to run the program. Complete details on how to set up the source code are included within the "readme.txt" file.
Dendro Tools contains the following groups of tools:
- Dataset: These tools check data for gaps and add missing dates to datasets so they are continuous, extract data from the Global Historical Climatology Network, and the United States Historical Climatology Network, transform monthly data available from various sources, compute averages and totals, and compute adjusted latewood chronologies using simple linear and robust regression.
- Statistics: A suite of statistical tools are available from basic descriptive statistics to more advanced statistics like double mass analysis, contingency table analysis, and simple linear, multiple linear, and principal components regression modeling.
- Time Series: These tools compute cublic smoothing splines and perform return time analyses.
Dendro Tools comes with a user's guide that can be accessed in three ways: selecting "Dendro Tools User's Guide" from the Dendro Tools shortcut folder in the Windows Start Menu, pressing F1 when running Dendro Tools, or by selecting "Help” from the program's main menu and then selecting "User's Guide...”. This help system is not only searchable but also integrated within Dendro Tools such that if F1 is pressed when a tool is open, the Dendro Tools User's Guide will open directly to the help topic associated with that tool.
System Requirements
- Operating System: Windows XP SP3 or higher
- Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 or higher
- R 3.0 or higher with dplR, lmtest, and psych packages installed (note: Dendro Tools will validate that the required R packages are installed and automatically download and install them within R if necessary)
Program Notes
GNU General Public License: Dendro Tools is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. Dendro Tools is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with Dendro Tools. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
Microsoft .NET Framework: The setup program will validate that the .NET Framework is installed. If the .NET Framework is not installed, then setup will automatically download it and install it for you. Do note though that the download size is 48.1 MB, which could take some time on slower Internet connections.