There is a notable asymmetry being overlooked here. Although SMCL can be
translated to HTML, its fundamental idea is quite different. SMCL is
emphatically for line by line mark-up and processing thereof, without
the end of document necessarily being in sight or even in existence.
Also, I know of no intent to make SMCL and HTML mutually translatable
languages.
If that weren't true, StataCorp could have seriously considered adopting
HTML for Stata help files, but it's a major reason SMCL exists.
Nick
[email protected]
Schaffer, Mark E
I like this idea a lot. Maybe Stata's -translate- should support
HTML->SMCL? Everybody has an editor that can creat HTML output. People
could write help files in HTML and then run them through -translate- to
get the necessary SMCL version. It wouldn't work for fancy stuff, e.g.,
point-and-click examples that trigger the execution of Stata code, but
it would probably be good enough for simple help files.
Kit Baum
> I can set up packages to automatically install any PDF files
> included with the package; that is an option in the package
> description. However that will not do you any good, as it
> will just install the PDF files in /plus/whatever, where it
> now installs the ado and sthlp files. Until and unless Stata
> has some official command to view help files in PDF as an
> alternative (per second query) this would not be useful.
>
> Personally I think it would be more productive to write a
> simple translator that would take, say, a LaTeX file
> following a template and turn it into SMCL.
*
* 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/
