MacSpin is an information observatory which looks not into astronomical darkness but into a universe of information. MacSpin, from D2 Software of Austin, Texas, is a data planetarium disguised as a three dimensional statistical analysis program.
Mainframe statistical packages, programs like Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), BMD from Statistical Software Inc., and SAS/STAT from SAS Insitute Inc. which graphically represent information in three dimensions, have played an important part in statistical computing for years. MacSpin takes advantage of the Macintosh's high resolution, bitmapped display, and graphics capabilities to integrate graphics and statistical analysis like those found in these mainframe packages. With MacSpin, a Macintosh user can look at data in a way he never could with the deviations, chi squares, and regressions performed with spreadsheets or statistical packages.
Spreadsheets are powerful tools for two-dimensional concepts, 'what-if' questions. Statistical packages use regression, multivariate analysis, multiple discriminative analysis, and other methods of statistical analysis to summarize information and give real, bottom-line numbers. Both applications are excellent analytical tools if all the information can be fit onto one screen. When you can't see all the variables included in an analysis, there is a risk of picking up data that is exceptional rather than pertinent and crucial. So, information in a spreadsheet or statistical analysis must always be reduced. The number of variables must be summarized and, therefore, limited. MacSpin lets you think about all the information in an analysis by showing you all of the information...
MacSpin is an original. It is a landmark program, completely unlike any other microcomputer statistical analysis program available on the market today. There are good statistical programs for the Macintosh, programs like Data Desk from Data Desk, Inc., Stats ToolKit from Sof-Ware Tools, StatView from Brainpower, Inc. ... , Stat fast from Statfast, and StatWorks from Heyden & Son. They are all designed to do advanced statistical and discriminative analysis. MacSpin is designed to do the same thing in a unique way. Instead of grinding numbers into hash and bones, MacSpin communicates large amounts of complex, numeric information to the user as visual information.
MacSpin turns a difficult task, statistical analysis, into a simple task, looking and thinking. If the Macintosh is to be a medium for creative thinking, it will need new ways of doing old things. It will need programs that excite the mind to imagine, to think. Computers will never think.
They will help us think better, but they will never think for us. Computers designed to do things, things like crunching and sorting great magnitudes, need a future with artificial intelligence and knowledge systems programs. The Macintosh needs more programs like MacSpin that include human thought, imagination, and curiosity in their algorithms.
Holloway, Michael. (February 1986). MacSpin. MACazine. (pg. 82, 89).
Abacus Concepts
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2020-09-14 / 
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MacSpin.sit
Emulating this? It could probably run under: 
Mini vMac
