RE: st: Making saveold a permanent option

[Richard Williams <Richard.A.Williams.5@nd.edu>]

At 10:30 PM 3/2/2004 +0000, Nick Cox wrote:
> Essentially, 7.0 is history. The only obligation
> it exerts over StataCorp is providing tech-support
> to registered users.
>
> I've no quarrel with felt needs, but I want StataCorp
> to look ahead, not backwards.
>
> Nick
> n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk
From a marketing standpoint though, I think it is a good idea when a 
company makes it as easy as possible for users of different versions to 
exchange files.  It used to be incredibly annoying when Microsoft would 
make changes in Word's .doc format to add features that 90% of the 
population did not want anyway, making it a big hassle to exchange 
files.  It was smart of MS to minimize incompatibilities and to offer 
freebie routines for conversion.  I'm sure Stata would prefer that 
everybody just immediately upgrade to V. 8, but an alternative possibility 
is that people will stick with 7 if it is too much hassle to upgrade 
everyone and if it is a hassle to exchange files between versions.

Stata obviously already has the code for switching back and forth between 7 
and 8, so it presumably wouldn't be too hard to come up with a separate 
utility for this purpose.

In the present case, Karen can admittedly solve her problem just by being a 
little more careful!  But if you are in a situation where you exchange 
files a lot (with students, colleagues; or perhaps if you place things on 
the web) it would be nice not to have to worry about compatibility issues 
or always being sure to use the lowest common denominator when saving 
things.  I occasionally work on a machine that has Stata 7, so it is a 
nuisance when I can't open a file and have to convert it with Stat/Transfer 
or switch to a Stata 8 machine.


-------------------------------------------
Richard Williams, Notre Dame Dept of Sociology
OFFICE: (574)631-6668, (574)631-6463
FAX:    (574)288-4373
HOME:   (574)289-5227
EMAIL:  Richard.A.Williams.5@ND.Edu
WWW (personal):    http://www.nd.edu/~rwilliam
WWW (department):    http://www.nd.edu/~soc

*
*   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/