st: Have dialogs and/or -twoway- been overhauled since November?

[Roger Newson <roger.newson@kcl.ac.uk>]

Hello All (especially StataCorp)

I have a query re -graph twoway- and dialog boxes under the latest version 
of Stata 8.2 for Windows (executable 10 Jan 2005, ado-files 24 Feb 2005). 
Have there been any unpublicised major overhauls of the Stata graphics 
dialog box system since November 2004?

I ask because my package -eclplot- (downloadable from SSC and distributed 
22 November 2004) suddenly seems no longer to work in dialog mode, as 
invoked by

db eclplot

(although it still works perfectly well in command mode, at least for me). 
At least part of the reason seems to be that my dialog box program 
-eclplot.dlg- usually creates a command with a lot of options given as 
"Default", and -graph twoway- now seems to have a problem with that. For 
instance, I have a standard program -eclgen1.do- for generating a dataset 
with one observation per confidence interval for testing -eclplot--, and it 
invokes the SSC packages -somersd-, -parmest- and -sencode-, and reads as 
follows:

**** BEGINNING OF eclgen1.do - CUT HERE
#delim ;
version 8.2;
*
 Generate resultsset for testing eclplot dialogs
*;

sysuse auto, clear;
parmby "somersd foreign price mpg headroom trunk weight length turn 
displacement gear_ratio", label norestore stars(0.05 0.01 0.001);
sort estimate parmseq;
sencode label, gene(predictor);
lab var predictor "Predictor of un-American origin";
desc;

exit;
**** END OF eclgen1.do - CUT HERE

If I execute -eclgen1.do-, and then invoke -db eclplot- and submit a basic 
command, the output is as follows:

**** BEGINNING OF OUTPUT - CUT HERE
. eclplot estimate min95 max95 predictor, horizontal eplottype(scatter) 
rplottype(rcap) estopts( mcolor(Default) mfcolor(Default) 
mlpattern(Default) mlwidth(Def
> ault) mlcolor(Default) mlabposition(Default) mlabangle(Default) 
mlabsize(Default) mlabcolor(Default) connect(Default) sort 
cmissing(Default) clpattern(Default
> ) clwidth(Default) clcolor(Default) ) ciopts( blpattern(Default) 
blwidth(Default) blcolor(Default) ) scheme(rbn1mono)
(note:  named style Default not found in class color, default attributes used
(note:  named style Default not found in class linepattern, default 
attributes used
(note:  named style Default not found in class linewidth, default 
attributes used
(note:  linewidth not found in scheme, default attributes used)
(note:  named style Default not found in class color, default attributes used
(note:  named style Default not found in class color, default attributes used
(note:  named style Default not found in class color, default attributes used
(note:  named style Default not found in class color, default attributes used
(note:  named style Default not found in class linepattern, default 
attributes used
(note:  named style Default not found in class linewidth, default 
attributes used
(note:  linewidth not found in scheme, default attributes used)
(note:  named style Default not found in class color, default attributes used
(note:  named style Default not found in class linewidth, default 
attributes used
(note:  linewidth not found in scheme, default attributes used)
(note:  named style Default not found in class linepattern, default 
attributes used
(note:  named style Default not found in class clockdir, default attributes 
used
(note:  named style Default not found in class gsize, default attributes used
(note:  named style Default not found in class color, default attributes used
(note:  named style Default not found in class anglestyle, default 
attributes used
(note:  named style Default not found in class connectstyle, default 
attributes used
(note:  named style Default not found in class yesno, default attributes used
(note:  yesno not found in scheme, default attributes used)
 not allowed
r(101);
**** END OF OUTPUT - CUT HERE

It appears that there is now a problem with the "Default" string passed as 
an option. THe dialog box -eclplot.dlg- definitely worked with the current 
version of Stata as of 22 November 2004.

I have not found anything publicised about a major overhaul of the graphics 
dialog boxes in -whelp whatsnew-. However, there seem to be two new .class 
files twowaygraph_g.class and twoway_yxview_parse.class in the Updates, 
both dated 15 December 2004, and I am wondering whether they have anything 
to do with the sudden malfunctioning of -eclplot.dlg-.

Best wishes (and thanks in advance)

Roger


--
Roger Newson
Lecturer in Medical Statistics
Department of Public Health Sciences
Division of Asthma, Allergy and Lung Biology
King's College London

5th Floor, Capital House
42 Weston Street
London SE1 3QD
United Kingdom

Tel: 020 7848 6648 International +44 20 7848 6648
Fax: 020 7848 6620 International +44 20 7848 6620
  or 020 7848 6605 International +44 20 7848 6605
Email: roger.newson@kcl.ac.uk
Website: http://phs.kcl.ac.uk/rogernewson/

Opinions expressed are those of the author, not the institution.

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