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On Aug 27, 2005, at 4:30 PM, Julia Nasev wrote:
My question concerns the compatibility between output created with
stata for mac and stata for windows. If working in a team on the same
project are there problems using stata on different operating systems?
The short answer is "no." The slightly longer answer is "not with a
few basic precautions," but it depends on how the collaboration occurs.
There are three main issues that I have come across when using Stata
cross-platform:
1. Avoid absolute file paths. (This strikes me as generally a good
idea anyway: greater portability.) If the project is sufficiently
complex, create an identical subdirectory structure below some common
"project root directory" on every file system, and only use path
references relative to this "root." (Note: Stata uses the
forward-slash to separate directory levels on all platforms, even
Windows. So use '/' instead of '\' for paths in all .do files.)
2. Text files have different line endings on Mac and Windows (and
Unix) systems. So long as users on both (all) platforms are using text
editors with a minimal degree of sophistication (see
<http://repec.org/docs/textEditors.html>), it should be
straight-forward to read both input files (e.g., .do files) and output
files (e.g., .log files) regardless of the line endings used -- and, if
necessary, to convert to the desired one. (Note: How the files will
be shared -- common server vs. (S)FTP vs. e-mail -- may have
implications for this issue.)
3. Save graphics in EPS format. (See -help graph_export-.) While the
Mac can natively generate graphics in PDF format, the PC cannot
(without jumping through some hoops and purchasing Acrobat, that is;
see <http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2004-11/msg00451.html> in
the StataList archives for details.) WMF, EMF and PICT do not
translate well across platforms, and while you could PNG, most
non-vector formats do not scale particularly well.
I have found that two other factors can make collaboration much
easier, whether cross-platform or not: (1) everyone uses the same
version of Stata, with the same additional .ado files installed; (2)
everyone uses open-standards file formats (e.g., plain text, EPS, PNG,
(La)TeX, etc.) -- instead of, say, proprietary Microsoft formats
(namely Word). Hope this helps.
-- Mike
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