Introduction to the special issue on interactive graphical data analysis: What is interaction? (Q1297882)

The paper contains a summary of this issue of \textit{Computational Statistics} devoted to the interactive statistical graphics and the analysis of 28 replies on a questionnaire on this topic propagated by the authors. Different meanings of the term ``interactive graphics'' are discussed: direct manipulations such as rotating a point cloud, selecting or rescaling; indirect manipulations (manipulations with controls to change algorithm parameters) and multiple package interaction. References contain three books on human-computer interaction.