However SPSS (although I hate to admit it) does have some very nice little
features which are absent in STATA:
To place these differences in perspective: My Stata8 and ado directories
consume about 37MB on my hard disk. SPSS takes up 237MB. Now, some of
this no doubt reflects statistical functionality that SPSS has that Stata
doesn't, some of which I might be able to add via user-written programs or
writing my own. But, I imagine a huge amount of the difference reflects
the user interface and all the options for formatting output. Some of
SPSS's good ideas may be cloneable, and improvements in the data editor
strike me as being a great idea. But, by keeping the program leaner and
more open to programmers, Stata may gain greater functionality in exchange
for sacrificing a bit in the way of aesthetics.
