--- "Mak, Timothy" <[email protected]> wrote:
> However, although Nick might disagree, at present, I don't really
> think that graphics is a strength in Stata. Compared to the myriads
> of graphs that R can do, Stata can only do simple plots. The main
> impediment is probably that Stata graphics is not programmable by
> most users. Could this possibly change in the coming years?
I've done graphs in both Stata and R and I realy don't see a difference
between the two (Nick will point out 3D type graphs which I don't like
anyhow so I don't miss those in Stata). In both cases you need to build
your graph sequentially, by adding elements and options till you got
the graph you want. Can you give an example of what is hard in Stata
and easy in R?
> Mata must be a significant contribution to Stata. However, compared
> to R, I think it is difficult to use. Having to switch between two
> languages (and two environments) really confuses me. That'll always
> be its weakness. However, I still like Stata very much, not least
> because of the immensely helpful community here, and the excellent
> manuals and support. As I said in an earlier post, though, I think a
> debug mode in mata would be a welcome addition...
I actually like the combination of a lower level language (Mata) that
is well integrated with a higher level language (ado), but a Mata
netcourse or book would be a great help (as this will probably contain
many tips and tricks on debugging, which may or may not be more useful
than a debug mode).
-- Maarten
-----------------------------------------
Maarten L. Buis
Department of Social Research Methodology
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Boelelaan 1081
1081 HV Amsterdam
The Netherlands
visiting address:
Buitenveldertselaan 3 (Metropolitan), room N515
+31 20 5986715
http://home.fsw.vu.nl/m.buis/
-----------------------------------------
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