I have a more mundane tip. You don't have to be a programmer
to look inside a program. Anyone can look. In fact, Stata will
look for you.
In particular,
if I want to know whether a program on SSC is more up-to-date
than one I have on my system, I can go
. ssc type ivreg2.ado
A lot of stuff may scroll by, but I am looking for some stuff
at the top like
*! ivreg2 2.1.21 5Feb2007
which I can compare with what is on my system:
. which ivreg2, all
to see if I need to update. (I do.)
Two details:
1. The -all- option is worth it too. Somehow you have may
multiple versions installed. That can be a cause of confusion,
either in this respect or in others.
2. This depends on programmers using the *! system. If
they don't, well, they could be forgetful, or there might
be a warning hidden for you about their cutting of corners.
Nick
[email protected]
Richard Williams
> The same program (or programs with the same name) can often be found
> at multiple locations, e.g. SJ and SSC. adoupdate will update
> whichever version you installed. It doesn't know that the SSC
> version is more current than the SJ version. Even if it did know
> that a program called ivreg2 was in multiple locations, I don't think
> you'd want it deciding for itself to install from a different
> location than you did - after all, there could be two totally
> different programs with the same name.
>
> Personally, if -findit- yields multiple hits, I go with the SSC
> version, unless I know for a fact that a more current version is
> available elsewhere. (One exception: the -fitstat- on SSC is less
> current than the version that can be found on J. Scott Long's
>
> My guess is that the best thing to do is uninstall the st0030_2
> package; and then install the individual programs that were part of
> it (ivreg2, ivendog, etc.) from SSC.
*
* 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/
