I don't think Tiago's flattering comments are going to change the situation he finds unsatisfactory.
First, there is no failure of Stata here, at most a failure of other Stata users to do what Tiago wants. Sorry about that if any of these 40 were mine, and you don't like the help files.
If individual packages fail to satisfy, try specific, diplomatic, constructive criticism directed at the authors of the packages. Private communications may work better to this end than public.
Otherwise this critique strikes me as too diffuse and exaggerated to allow a worthwhile detailed reply.
Nick
[email protected]
Tiago V. Pereira
I have already mentioned here that this unecessary task might be avoided
once each stata package points out references within the help file to
everybody rapidly to find out the answer.
I use more than 40 Stata packages weekly, and in several instances I have
no idea about which tests are employed! Frenquently, it is easier to
compare results to known packages such as SPSS, GraphPad or even R! -
instead of opening codes and try to decipher each code.
Again, this is one of the most important failure of Stata: there are
packages to do everthing, but few of them can be mentioned in papers.
If you don´t know stata programming, there is no way to know which methods
are programmed in the package.
*
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
