v0.4.1

Package v0.4.1

New functionality: Simulated Annealing

• The Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm has been added to the package, with a single user-facing function simulatedAnnealing().
• SA can be used on anything lavaan can run, though the current implementation focuses on traditional confirmatory models using lavaan::cfa(). However, there are plans for more user control in the modelling process to allow for other model defaults.

New functionality: Tabu Search (Short Form)

• An adaptation of the Tabu search to short form creation has been added.

New functionality: ACO Plots

• The antcolony_lavaan() function has been modified so that it no longer will print a summaryfile.txt. Rather, the function maintains the old summary file as an internal object and returns it after completion,
• The new function antcolony_plot() takes the results from antcolony_lavaan() and creates three graphs: (a) a plot showing how pheremone levels change as the algorithm progresses, (b) a plot showing how the mean value of the regression coefficients changes as the algorithm progresses, and (c) a plot showing how the mean variance explained changes as the algorithm progresses.

New functionality: Bifactor Models

• Each of the short form functions utilizing lavaan (antcolony.lavaan(), simulatedAnnealing(), tabuShortForm()) are capable of handling bifactor models.
• In theory, this means relatively arbitrary models can be specified as well, but the functions utilize the "~" and "~~" operators for the additional functionality as well as the bifactor logical option. No guarantee that an arbitrary model will work beyond those currently tested.

Minor revisions

• The lavaan-based functions all have more controlled output to the R console. This is most noticeable with the antcolony.lavaan() function.

CRAN v0.3.0

ShortForm v0.3.0: CRAN

This is the first implementation of the ShortForm package that was successfully submitted to CRAN. At this stage, it is considered an open beta product.

Current Features

Currently, the package can fit somewhat simplistic CFA and SEM models utilizing one or more latent variables. The function help documentation provides simple examples, while Leite, Huang, & Marcoulides (2008) (doi:10.1080/00273170802285743) demonstrates the original use case from which this package is derived.

Models can be fit with the lavaan package, with Mplus directly via system calls, or Mplus indirectly via MplusAutomation.

Future Features

At the moment, there are no features planned in the immediate future. However, we are planning on adding alternative algorithms for short form creation in the far future.