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25 Transitioning from BUGS

From the outside, Stan and BUGS⁴⁸ are similar—they use statistically-themed modeling languages (which are similar but with some differences; see below), they can be called from R, running some specified number of chains to some specified length, producing posterior simulations that can be assessed using standard convergence diagnostics. This is not a coincidence: in designing Stan: we wanted to keep many of the useful features of Bugs.