Programmers already provide keywords (or I provide keywords for them)
for every routine on the SSC Archive. Have a look at the foot of
http://ideas.repec.org/c/boc/bocode/s439101.html
or
http://ideas.repec.org/c/boc/bocode/s448101.html
These keywords are stored in the Keywords: field of the RePEc template
describing those routines, and in IDEAS or EconPapers, you can search
on them.
The problem is that the Stata package file format does not presently
provide a way to hold these keywords (or to be more precise, you can
place anything you want on the d lines in a package file, but no one
has suggested that my adding a line
d KW: normal variates, quotient, confidence interval
would result in anything happening regarding findit.
A number of authors propose keywords when they submit materials to SSC.
I'm not sure that the keyword information belongs in the .hlp
file--since the .hlp file will certainly not be inhaled by findit--but
if there is a way to ensure that a modification of the package file for
each SSC package would allow keywords to enter the findit index, I
could add the existing Keywords: to the package file. In the case
cited, "output" was one of the keywords for mat2txt, but of course
Stata does not know that.
On this subject, the RePEc template for each package contains the
information on the version of Stata needed for the package (which may
be viewed by ssc whatsnew). That, also, does not show up in the package
file; one might imagine that it is very useful information for those
not able to use the latest version of Stata.
Kit Baum, Boston College Economics
http://ideas.repec.org/e/pba1.html
On Dec 14, 2004, at 2:33 AM, statalist-digest wrote:
Would it be worthwhile for programmers to provide key words, perhaps
in the
command's help file, to be detected by -search- or -findit-? The key
words
could be flagged perhaps in a dedicated smcl format in order
for -search-/-findit- to easily parse, for example, {kw:date}
{kw:conversion}. Maybe it would speed the search if they were set-off
in
their own paragraph in the help file, much as for the key words
section of
manuscripts.
This was prompted yesterday when Svend Juul pointed out Nick Cox's
-todate-
as a much more convenient alternative to a "first principles" approach
that
I had suggested earlier. This is certainly true, provided that you
know
about its existence. A few experimental tries with -findit- and
-search-
(using terms such as "date" "conversion" "string" and so on, variously
singly or in combination) either pulled up hundreds of irrelevant hits
or
missed it.
I recall that the problem of avoiding -search-/-findit- overlooking
user-written contributions has come up on the list before, but I don't
recall whether there has been any resolution other than for interested
users
to notify StataCorp ad hoc of user-written contributions that seem to
be
overlooked or difficult to catch. If that's as it stands, then
perhaps a
more systematic approach would be better.
Obviously, the concept of set-off or smcl-identified key words is no
panacea. Its success will still depend upon both programmer and
future user
formulating a problem in terms of the same key words, which doesn't
always
happen for a variety of reasons. But it seems that a systematized
approach
would go a long way toward helping a user quickly determine whether
there's
a user-written contribution already available and tailored to the
problem at
hand.
Joseph Coveney
*
* 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/
