You need to save your commands, tables, etc, to a file
(using 'outfile' or 'save', for example), and then print the resulting file
after you exit minitab. Try HELP OUTFILE or HELP SAVE;
briefly, from within Minitab you type outfile 'myfile' to start
saving both your input and Minitab's output to a file named 'myflie.LIS'
(you can use any name you like, of course), and nooutfile to stop
saving output; another outfile 'myfile' appends further output to
the same file. After you stop minitab you can print the file from
the Unix prompt by typing lpr myfile.LIS, possibly after first
editing it with an editor like emacs or vi. Thus to save
the output for Problem 1 of Homework Set 1, you could type:
Then under the Unix prompt, please try:
to look through the resulting output file. You could use an editor (such as
emacs or vi) to revise your file prob1.LIS and
then print it using the Unix command
As an alternative, you might try the Minitab command paper, which will
print your entire session, once you stop Minitab.
9. How can I use minitab to generate 500
observations from some discrete distribution?
In order to generate random samples from a discrete distribution that
is not already in Minitab, we first need to tell Minitab about the
distribution. Make two columns, one for the possible values y
and the other for the corresponding probabilities p(y), then use
the Minitab command discrete. For example, to generate a
sample from a random variable Y taking the values 1, 2, 4
with probabilities .1, .5, .4 you could type:
MTB > read c10 c11
DATA> 1 0.10
DATA> 2 0.50
DATA> 4 0.40
DATA> end
3 rows read.
MTB > random 500 c1;
SUBC> discrete c10 c11.
MTB >
Now c1 contains the sample; you can find its mean, view it, find a
histogram, or whatever you like, using the usual commands mean c1,
print c1, hist c1, etc.