A home base for future information and code about patn: Watch this space.

Lee Belbin

Adam Collins

PATN does pattern analysis. patn is a comprehensive and extremely versatile, yet simple to use software package for extracting and displaying patterns in any type of complex multivariate data.

PATN started life way back in 1984 as a practical tool for my CSIRO research into 'pattern analysis', a field established by the botanist, Professor Bill Williams and the computer scientist, Dr Godfrey Lance at CSIRO in Canberra Australia.

The first version of PATN was written for DOS and contained an extremely broad range of modules and options. Experience suggested that 5% of the options were used 95% of the time. PATN was designed to confront users with an array of options to ensure that it was not used as a 'black box'. That failed as many users tried all options. "A man with one watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure".

PATN (for Windows) v1.00 built on the knowledge of thousands of analyses. PATN examines an imported dataset and derives a suite of appropriate options. A 'standard' analysis can now be done in a few seconds by pressing a few buttons.

patn v3 was the first commercial release of PATN for Windows™. The key innovation in PATN v3 is the animated, interactive ordination plot display. This is the window where most interpretation occurs. This environment is the ideal way to understand your data.

PATN was placed into the 'public domain' in March 2019. For now, that means you can freely download the Windows installer version (v4). With this move to github, PATN will become patn.

patn generates estimates of association (resemblance, affinity, distance) between any set of objects described by a suite of variables (attributes). patn then classifies the objects into groups, condenses the information into three dimensions and displays the patterns in your data graphically.

patn also has a range of tools to help you to to identify the reasons for these patterns.

I have placed PATN into the public domain as I am less able through time to support it, and develop it further, but I still have some ideas that I would like to see implemented.

We set up this repository in preparation for releasing the current version of code of patn into the public domain. The software, while old, still has many features and tools that are not currently available. We are hoping that interested people will take it on to bring it into a future using the latest tools such as advanced graphics libraries, interfaces and AI.