I kind of like the separator lines in lists, especially that you can
sort by a group and have the lines respect the group divisions. I
understand some of the complaints about slowness in v.8 graphics and
dialogs, and hope the slightly premature release of v.8 in this regard
is not discoloring perceptions of other Stata features. But maybe no
lines is the proper default. I have an email in to a couple of visual
perception psychologists regarding the separator lines. I've asked if
they help or hinder visual search, if any one has done a study on speed
of searching in a list with and without. In general, any grouping
feature that respects meaningful chunks aids visual processing.
Arbitrary lines might be another story. Lines are not present in phone
books for instance, though probably to save trees. I'll report back.
