The MineSet User's Guide describes the features and capabilities of this suite of three database mining and five visualization tools. Current information about the MineSet product can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.sgi.com/Products/software/MineSet.
If you are using the Tool Manager to extract data from a database into the MineSet tools, you should understand database structures. It also would be helpful to know SQL.
If you are configuring the tools directly (through the configuration files, or through the command line in the case of the association rules), you should have some knowledge of UNIX as well as some programming experience.
Once the data has been loaded into the various visualization tools, you will not need a database or programming background, although you will be able to interpret the displays more easily if you have an understanding of the data and what it represents.
In addition to this preface, the documentation for MineSet consists of the following chapters:
Chapter 1, “Getting Started”
This provides a brief overview of each MineSet tool and describes the processes that occur when invoking and using a tool.
Chapter 2, “Setting Up MineSet”
This chapter describes how to set up MineSet by configuring the DataMover.
Chapter 3, “The Tool Manager”
This chapter describes the menus and functions of the initial interface for invoking tools and tells how to produce their respective configuration files.
Chapter 4, “Using the Tree Visualizer”
This chapter provides a complete description of the Tree Visualizer tool interface. This tool is valuable for visualizing hierarchical data.
Chapter 5, “Using the Map Visualizer”
This chapter provides a complete description of the Map Visualizer interface. This tool is valuable for visualizing data that is connected with a geographical location.
Chapter 6, “Using the Scatter Visualizer”
This chapter provides a complete description of the Scatter Visualizer interface. This tool is valuable for visualizing multidimensional data.
Chapter 7, “Using the Rules Visualizer”
This chapter provides a complete description of the Rules Visualizer. This tool is valuable for mining large datasets and visualizing correlations in that data.
Chapter 8, “MineSet Inducers and Classifiers”
This chapter provides a brief introduction to classifiers and the algorithms that generate them, called inducers. Specifically, it introduces the two MineSet classifiers: Decision Tree and Evidence.
Chapter 9, “Inducing and Visualizing the Decision Tree Classifier”
This chapter describes how to generate and use the Decision Tree Classifier. This tool is valuable for classifying data according to a set of attributes by making a series of decisions based on those attributes.
Chapter 10, “Inducing and Visualizing the Evidence Classifier”
This chapter describes how to generate and use the Evidence Classifier. This tool is valuable for classifying data by examining the probabilities of a specified result occurring based on a given attribute.
Chapter 11, “Column Importance”
This chapter provides a complete description of the column importance tool. It also describes the relationship between column importance and the importance ranking in the other data mining tools.
Appendix A, “Creating Data and Configuration Files for the Tree Visualizer”
This appendix explains the required formats of the Tree Visualizer data and configuration files.
Appendix B, “Creating Data, Configuration, Hierarchy, and GFX Files for the Map Visualizer”
This appendix explains the required formats of the Map Visualizer data, configuration, hierarchy, and .gfx files.
Appendix C, “Creating Data and Configuration Files for the Scatter Visualizer”
This appendix explains the required formats of the Scatter Visualizer data and configuration files.
Appendix D, “Creating Data and Configuration Files for the Rules Visualizer”
This appendix explains the required formats of the Rules Visualizer data and configuration files.
Appendix E, “Command-Line Interface to MIndUtil: Classifiers, Discretization, Column Importance, and File Conversions”
This appendix describes the MIndUtil program and its options.
Appendix F, “Format of the Evidence Visualizer's Data File”
This appendix describes the format of the Evidence Visualizer's data file.
Appendix G, “Nulls in MineSet”
This appendix describes how MineSet supports nulls in the data access tools, the mining tools, and the visualization tools.
Appendix H, “Examples of Tool Usage”
This appendix provides demonstration scripts that guide you through some of the features of each of the MineSet tools.
Appendix I, “Further Reading and Acknowledgments”
This appendix lists reference sources for further reading about concepts and their implementations used in the MineSet tools. It also lists acknowledgments for data sources used in the examples provided with these tools.
 | Note: The hard copy of this documentation provides all screen shots and illustrations in black and white. The online version, however, provides these visuals in full, original color. Thus, if you are reading the hard copy version and find a particular graphic or screen shot difficult to see, go to the respective page of the online version for greater clarity. |
The following type conventions and symbols are used in this guide:
| Italics | Executable names, filenames, program variables, tools, utilities, variable command-line arguments, and variables to be supplied by the user in examples, code, and syntax statements. | |
| Bold | Keywords | |
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| [ ] | Syntax statement arguments surrounded by square brackets denote that these arguments are optional. |