In the columns below, you will find the command, the abbreviation for the command, frequently used arguments (if any exist) that can be added to the command to make it more specific, and the purpose of the command and its arguments. For users that are more familiar with other programs, the equivalent command in Hennig86 or PAUP* are given.
Command | Abrv. | Arguments | Purpose | Hennig86 | PAUP * |
help | he | ; = xxx | On-line list of the commands
- lists all commands | assist | |
z | Exit the program | y |
Command | Abrv. | Arguments | Purpose | Hennig86 | PAUP* |
whennig | wh | N | Creates a wagner tree. It is fast but remember - a more
parsimonious tree may be found later by branch swapping
N stands for the number of trees to be generated. If this | h | |
empezar | e | = | Creates a weighted wagner tree and then branch swaps
using subtree pruning regrafting (SPR) the order of the taxa is randomized | wh | |
max | ma | * | Branch-swapping using subtree pruning regrafting (SPR)
on initial trees (trees generated using wh or e), searching
for shortest trees.
trees are swapped more exhaustively | bb | |
mult | mu | * N | Randomizes the order of the taxa, creates a weighted wagner
tree, and submitts it to branch-swapping, storing in
memory as many trees as had been set with hold.
trees are swapped more exhaustively using tree
By adding a number, this command can be repeated | Heuristic search with random addition sequence | |
bound N1 N2 | bo | * | Same as mult but instead of swapping on all trees it can
find, it swaps until it finds a tree of fit N2 (the "bound"),
and then starts the new replication with a new random
order. This lets you constrain the search to trees you know
are present and not bother with longer trees. The first
replication swaps exhaustively (keeping the maximum
number of initial trees specified with hold), in an attempt
to improve the bound. If no number is provided as bound,
it uses the best available or the one resulting from first
replication.If there are trees in memory before issuing this
command and the bound provided is inferior to those trees,
the best bound is used. If the bound is improved in one of
the replications, a new bound is used for subsequent
replications. For messy data sets, this may execute faster than mult, but if provided with a suboptimal initial bound it may produce suboptimal trees.
trees are swapped more exhaustively using tree | ||
jump | j | N | To find multiple islands of trees by branch swapping on
suboptimal trees. Number of jumps to make |
Command | Abrv. | Arguments | Purpose | Hennig86 | PAUP * |
ambiguous | amb | - = | To collapse internal branches under various rules (default)if any possible states are shared between ancestor and descendant node, the branch is considered unsupported. Collapse only if ancestor and descendant have identical states | default | |
hold | h | N +N /N | Keep in memory up to N trees (The default is 50). If * is
used instead of a number the program will retain all trees for
which memory has been allocated. makes space for N additional trees (useful for "jumps").
determines the maximum number of initial trees, i.e., Try this trick to add to the capacity of the tree buffer: before loading the data file enter the command h*, then enter h* again after loading the data. |
Command | Abrv. | Arguments | Purpose | Hennig8 6 | PAUP* |
break | br | = r | (default) enables breaks during tree searches (press ".") produces a report of time status of the search | ||
pause | pa | pauses the program until a key is pressed |
Command | Abrv. | Arguments | Purpose | Hennig86 | PAUP * |
tplot | tp | * | show tree show all trees | tp | |
bsupport | N | Calculate bremer supports
TBR swapping on available trees saving up to N/10 less | |||
sv | * | Save trees to a file in parenthetical notation (with "*" as an argument, saves every tree in memory; with no argument, saves current tree). | |||
output | out | / | send output of commands to file XXX closes the output file | log |
Command | Abrv. | Arguments | Purpose | Hennig86 | PAUP * |
pack | merges characters with identical distribution into one character of higher weight. For most morphological data, which include few uninformative characters, this is seldom necessary, but for molecular data sets (where as little as a fourth of the sites may be informative) the packed matrices may run much faster. | ||||
dread | ? ; | Read DNA (IUPAC) code for characters gaps are treated as missing data gaps are treated as a fifth character |
Most programs go through a long slow procedure in which much time is spent collecting and swapping on large islands of trees that differ by minor rearrangements of a few taxa. What strategies can be used to avoid this problem?
This search strategy, as well as tree evaluation, can most easily be implemented with Winclada!