Similar questions have been asked many times. I think everyone agrees
that the inbuilt Stata do-file editor is rather limited -- i.e. simple
and intuitive, if I try to flip to marketing mode. Indeed from many
points of view, including those of beginning or occasional users of
Stata, that is probably a great advantage.
Beyond that the main answer is one that you have given already: that
people who want fully-fledged editors are typically already using one,
and in many cases have invested considerable time and effort in
acquiring competence or expertise in such an editor.
Besides, Stata's commitment to availability across platforms bites hard
here. People on different Oss would typically expect a fully-fledged
editor to have a strong flavour of the OS they are working with. That
would commit StataCorp to writing two or three editors.
My own guess is that StataCorp will continue to add extra features to
their editor from time to time. My own request is that they _don't_ put
much effort into this. People who want a great editor already have lots
of choices, and those choices are often free or inexpensive.
Besides, there is no either-or here. I use the do file editor for many
simple tasks and switch to my favourite editor Vim for more substantial
coding.
Nick
[email protected]
Malcolm Wardlaw
1) Do File Editors:
It's always perplexed me that Stata has no IDE. Theres that basic
text editor for writing do files, but it's incredibly basic and has none
of the important features that are standard in coding environments, most
notably markup. I currently use WinEdt as my do file editor. It's OK,
but it's kind of quirky. It's great for LaTeX, but I feel like at least
my current configuration is kind of shoddy.
So, does anyone have what they feel is a really good coding
environment, or perhaps a really intuitive and reliable WinEdt setup?
*
* 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/
