Giovanni Vecchi <[email protected]> asks:
> If I may add a comment, I would like to note that the solution suggested
> by Ken does not allow to spot the fact that - tutorial - does not exist
> anymore. If I understand it correctly, by typing <search out of date ,
> entry> one gets a list of Stata 7 commands which have been
> replaced/renamed in Stata 8.
>
> My point in citing the -tutorial- command in my previous posting was
> that it is an example of A Stata command which has disappeared with no
> replacement. I am sorry if I was unclear.
>
> Thus, my new question could be phrased as follows: is anyone aware of
> how to get a list of all Stata 7 commands which have been dropped from
> Stata 8 and have not been replaced?
Friedrich Huebler <[email protected]> mentions that unlike
Stata 7, Stata 8 does not have tutorial files, and suggests
> Stata 8 has no tutorials. You can copy the tutorial files from Stata
> 7 but some of the instructions (the graphics, for example) are
> obsolete.
and Nick Cox <[email protected]> said
> ... My impression
> is that the tutorials -- defined as what are run by -tutorial- --
> are not being maintained into Stata 8. Even if you copy
> the old files, they won't necessarily work.
>
> In the case of graphics, -whelp graph_intro- is a substitute.
>
> The style of the tutorials -- essentially emitting a
> windowful of stuff at a time -- has become arguably very out-of-date
> anyway. I've sensed students getting bored and bailing out presented
> with this style. The contents had in many cases become very out-of-date
> as well. I've not used them for teaching for some years. It
> is a lot easier -- and in many ways just as effective -- to
> write documents to be looked at in the viewer. Naturally, that's
> some work as compared with no work in using pre-prepared tutorials.
Nick's impression is correct. We noticed that the tutorials in
Stata 7 were not really the direction we wanted to continue going
with Stata. They were too linear. The direction we believe we
want to go is along the lines of the graph_intro.hlp where you
can read, skip around, click to see it run, etc. and are not
forced to go through the material in a straight line. Over time
we want to introduce more hlp files like the graph_intro.hlp, or
possibly device even better methods to help new users learn.
We forgot to create an appropriate -search- entry and -hlp- file
for -tutorial- for Version 8. Next ado-file update we will
provide files that explain that -tutorial- is out-of-date.
-tutorial-, though out-of-date, can still be run on user created
tutorials, just as in the past. But, the old official Stata
tutorials are, we believe, no longer of much interest and are not
included in Stata 8.
Ken Higbee [email protected]
StataCorp 1-800-STATAPC
*
* 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/
