Yeah. I was just assuming you were right that the R-community is not
paying attention to stata, and I was suggesting that did not speak to the
existence of "competition." I presume stata is doing something to make
itself aware of what its customers and potential customers might want/need
like, maybe, periodically monitoring statalist, showing up at users groups
meetings and such.
Respectfully,
Sam
On Wed, 28 Feb 2007, Robert Duval wrote:
> Sam,
>
> I totally agree with your characterization of competition. However, if
> you are a for profit organization (like Stata Corp) you better orient
> to the competion.
>
> robert
>
> On 2/28/07, SamL <[email protected]> wrote:
> > If potential customers/users see two products as competing, well, in that
> > sense they *are* competing, even if the producers of those products do not
> > orient to the competition. Not orienting to the competition may mean the
> > producer does not care what happens, but that does not mean that potential
> > users are not comparing the products and selecting one or the other, or,
> > less likely, both.
> >
> > Take care.
> > Sam
> >
> > On Wed, 28 Feb 2007, Robert Duval wrote:
> >
> > > > I think you can actually spend more money on commercial documentation
> > > > for R than you would get if you bought the Stata documentation. I'm
> > > > sorry I don't have an AIC or BIC for that comparison.
> > > >
> > > > :)
> > > >
> > > > -Dave
> > >
> > >
> > > I am a Stata and R user, and i am on both mailing lists (which means I
> > > have to delete tons of crap from my email every day!).
> > >
> > > While I recently defended Stata manuals on the R-list, I have to say I
> > > disagree with your cost assessment (quoted above).
> > >
> > > It is true that if you buy the core R books you'll probably spend more
> > > $ than buying the full Stata documentation set. The difference
> > > however, is that the contents in those books is quite stable and most
> > > likely you won't need to buy anything else after that, (i.e. you can
> > > figure out the updates made to R in the free online Documentation).
> > > With Stata you have to buy a new documentation set every new release
> > > (roughly every two years), at least if you want to be completely up to
> > > date (I agree that you can survive most of the times with manuals from
> > > the previously release). Once you account for that, the Stata
> > > documentation becomes waaay more costly.
> > >
> > > I like the Stata documentation, but it drives me nuts that they don't
> > > have an electronic version of it. I'm ok if Stata Corp wants to make $
> > > and charge a lot for their manuals... but I think life would be much
> > > better if they sell a CD version of the manuals too. If you move
> > > around a lot, having to carry with you the documentation set is
> > > literally impossible.
> > >
> > > btw. I thought as curious Maarten's characterization of R as Stata's
> > > "competitor". While both software offer somewhat similar products, I
> > > think the R community is too self-involved to see themselves as
> > > "competing with Stata". For the most part I would say they don't care
> > > as to what goes on in Stataland.
> > >
> > > robert
> > > *
> > > * 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/
> > >
> > *
> > * 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/
> >
> *
> * 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/
>
*
* 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/
