What’s good about Quantum? The thing that prevents people leaving it despite a string of owners trying to end it, is that Quantum is in a class above all other cross-tabulators in its power, speed and versatility. What’s bad about it is that it is a one direction batch processor with no interactivity, and is a 70s DOS program that is becoming increasingly difficult to keep going in modern operating systems. It is also becoming harder to find DP staff who understand how to use Quantum.
What’s good about Ruby? Pretty much the same thing; Ruby is in a class above all other cross-tabulators in its power, speed and versatility. Ruby is a modern Windows program with full interactivity, unlike Quantum. Ruby has been designed, from the ground up,to handle any methodology and data of any complexity and size. Quantum was important to our early adopters, and so we have developed import technology for Quantum jobs, including levels, and we have exactly matched Quantum’s t-tests, including the overlap formula.
To import Quantum data, you follow the same rules for flipping into Quanvert – a run file with clean independent axes covering all columns. Ruby will even read and execute the edit section as it imports. Quantum Levels are converted to Ruby Levels and function identically.
If you feel that your organisation is vulnerable through use of Quantum, now an unsupported product, then you should investigate what Ruby, and its associated products can offer.A major point of difference between the two products is that development of Ruby is on-going, while Quantum is not.