Lee Sieswerda
> Patrick, I very much disagree with what you are saying,
> especially about the
> difference between official and user-written commands. Your
> original posting
> was explicit that it was a matter of respect as to whether
> authors should be
> given a first crack at fixing bugs. Yes, it is true that
> StataCorp receives
> financial compensation for their product, but that does not imply a
> different standard of respect - especially, I might add, in
> the case of
> StataCorp (I might agree with you if we were discussing a less ethical
> company). If you demand respect for the authors of
> user-written commands,
> you must also demand respect for the authors of official commands.
Everyone deserves respect and I wasn't insinuating otherwise. I have the
utmost respect for each and every single employee of StataCorp, the most
ethical of all Corporations.
> Maybe you are only expressing your personal preference with
> regard to your
> own programs? If so, you could indicate your preference in
> the help files of
> your programs.
If that's what I had wanted to say I would have stated so. I could care
less if people disparage my programs on the list. I t just turns out that I
am not personally comfortable reporting a bug about a user-written module to
the list. If others are comfortable with that, good for them. No one has
to heed my little homily and I won't feel slighted if they don't.
The only reason I *sometimes* report bugs about Stata on the list is when I
am not even sure myself if a particular instance is a feature or a bug, or
even if I am the one who is making a methodological faux-pas. More often
than not, a non-StataCorp member of the list will clear the matter up, which
lessens the burden on those hard-working StataCorp employees.
> I also wonder at your last sentence, "If an author doesn't
> respond then,
> fair game", making the analogy that authors and their buggy
> programs are
> grouse to be shot, but only after some "respectful" fair
> warning has been
> given.
Whew! That's an analogy *you* are making. I will no longer discuss this
matter on the list (nor privately!) as you appear to be more intent in
reading between the lines and extrapolating than demonstrating why extending
a little courtesy to one an other is such a sub-optimal outcome. I tried to
argue that with a little sense of decorum we can achieve both; call me an
idealist, I don't care.
Patrick Joly
[email protected]
[email protected]
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