I did notice that Stata8 now has menus, but they are not interfering with
my usage of the command prompt and newcomers are very happy with the menus.
I taught Stata since version 5 and newcomers always struggled to get quest
to work or get quest installed.
For "oldtimers" like myself it is sometimes cumbersome with version shift
to experience things like "list is not working as it used to" or "gra x y"
disappeared and replaced by twoway ..... But the strength here is that as a
general rule either StataCorp (such as with "gr7 x y" in Stata 8 ) or some
users maintain a particular feature from previous versions.
E.g. clist.ado (A wrapper for listing) was rewritten in one line to always
use the "old" format of list:
list `id' `varlist`p'' `if' `in', nodisplay `nolabel' `obs'
`doublespace'
was changed to
list `id' `varlist`p'' `if' `in', nodisplay clean `nolabel' `obs'
and the routine works again. By clean all the frames disappear.
So to maintain an "old" feature, just find someone who can write a small
wrapper for that behaviour - or better use the opportunity to learn how to
write a small ado file doing what the old command did. E.g. by taking one
of the netcourses.
With a few exceptions all Stata's commands run under version control. One
exception to this is the clear command. So if you try to run venndiag.ado
that I wrote under Stata8 it will not work, but by changing one line (as
answered by Stata Support in two days) from: "clear" to
"drop _all" It works again.
A revised version of venndiag.ado will appear in SSC-ideas soon.
So in case a user written command from SSC (found by "findit xxx") is not
working contact the author first (as someone did to me on venndiag.ado) and
usually I think they will solve the problem and place a new one on ssc. If
not [email protected] has always to my knowledge been very helpful.
Jens M. Lauritsen, Consultant,MD. PhD.
Accident Analysis Group, Odense University Hospital,
Odense, Denmark e-mail: [email protected]
Initiator of EpiData, see www.epidata.dk for DataEntry in windows (EpiInfo
V6 principle)
For news on Epidata, sign on at: www.epidata.dk/php/maillist.php
Phone +45 6541 2293 Mobile +45 2173 2293 fax: +45 6613 6581
*
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
