You're correct; I think this goes back to Stata 7.
The explanation, as I understand it, is that
. whelp foobar
is a convenience abbreviation for
. view help foobar
Evidently Stata Corp decided in a few cases --
although they're all important -- that the
behaviour you describe was more natural,
and thus sacrificed consistency. (At this
point some may want to quote Emerson.)
Nick
[email protected]
Friedrich Huebler
> The help file for some commands can only be displayed with -help-.
> For example, -whelp ado- and -whelp update- don't display the help
> file but execute -ado- and -update- in the Stata Viewer. Stata has
> behaved this way since the release of version 8.0.
*
* 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/
