Nick's point about our lack of experience with v10 is well taken.
However, my own superficial impression of the graphics editor is as
follows.
First, the editor is really helpful for annotating graphs. The -text-
option of conventional graph commands is inconvenient and the ability to
drag text around with the graphics editor is great. Similarly, being
able to make fine adjustments to the location of legends will be
helpful.
I am more ambivalent about the other features. Clicking on a graph
feature (say an axis) brings up a dialog box that is focused on this
feature. This dialogue box is easier to use than the general dialogue
boxes because it is specific to changes that you might want to make to
the axis. The cost of this convenience is the loss of one's changes in
the Review window. On the other hand, the design of the general
dialogue boxes has been improved. They are, perhaps, a little harder to
use than those of the graphics editor, but not much. Once you have the
right box, you can experiment with different changes and see their
effects by clicking the Submit button. My first impression is that it
will usually be worth the trouble to look up the conventional boxes so
that one's changes then flow into the Review window for future use.
I would be interested to know if others share my impression of the new
editor, of if I am missing something.
I do hope that sometime in the future (perhaps v11) Stata Corp will
allow at least some of the edits that can be made with this editor to
flow into the Review window. One of the really great features of Stata
is its ability to create new commands by pointing and clicking without
giving up the ability to create log files or to easily generate do
files. The graphics editor would be even cooler if it also allowed us
to have our cake and eat it too.
Bill Dupont
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Nick Cox
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 9:47 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: st: graph editor stata10
Somehow, I don't think this horse will run. Nor
would I suggest that StataCorp even think about
it.
Stata 10 is officially two days old, although
shipping started last week. I doubt that anyone
outside StataCorp has as yet much experience with
the graph editor. So, suggesting, already, that we need _another_
one is a trifle premature, unless this is a joke.
What I suggest is different. Anyone who repeatedly
finds themselves making the same kinds of changes
to graphs in the Graph Editor can make that clear.
We will then find that
1. There is already a way of automating the production
of graphs with those changes. (You've not registered
that an option exists to do your tweak.) Or, alternatively, there
is another way of producing the graph you want.
(You are using -graph bar-, and you would be better
off with -twoway bar-, or whatever.)
2. There isn't a way, but StataCorp will find that they
can tweak the graph language upstream to make that true.
3. There isn't, and StataCorp won't or can't do
anything about it, usually because the changes really aren't
automatable in any reasonable way.
My very wild guess is that the distribution
will be #1 80%; #2 10%; #3 10%.
This does not refer to anything that people
do to graphs outside Stata, whether it is to do with
Greek symbols, polka dots or drawings of
little people.
Nick
[email protected]
SamL
> Sounds like a nice addition for Stata11 (eleven) would be PGHE-a
> Programmer's Graph Helper Editor--which would be the same as
> the Stata10
> editor *except* it would be restricted to the things that a programmer
> could use syntax to write. Then, a programmer could program
> a graph in a
> do-file, edit it using PGHE, and then take the new syntax and
> run as many
> versions as s/he wanted. And, the existence of the existing
> Stata10 graph
> editor (which would be retained in Stata11) would allow much
> more flexible
> editing.
>
> So, that's wishlist item #2 for Stata11. ;-)
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