Re: st: RE: Venn diagrams

[Philip Burgess <philip.burgess.uq@gmail.com>]

On Sat, Oct 23, 2010 at 8:20 AM, Philip Burgess
<philip.burgess.uq@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Nick & David;
>
> Thanks for your thoughtful comments, suggestions and links.
>
> I thought I had updated venndiag on  -ssc- but not so. My mistake. I have done now and it works fine.
>
> I agree entirely with Nick that Venn diagrams are of limited value for data analysis; but David's observation about unsophisticated audiences was exactly my objective.
>
> My target audiences are policy & planning folk who are less enthusiastic about the trigonometry and just want a very simple explanation of all matters we find challenging and complex. Proportional Venn diagrams generally achieve that end.
>
> For others interested, I earlier came across this software:
>
> http://omics.pnl.gov/software/VennDiagramPlotter.php .
>
> It's free, it's simple, produces a *.bmp output but doesn't (seem to) have any means of enhancing the chart - adding legends, etc. I have manually edited in Paint but it's less than ideal. These features are great in -venndiag- but, understandably, lacks the proportionality.
>
> Anyway, again I appreciate the feedback and advice.
>
> Philip
>
>
> On Fri, Oct 22, 2010 at 11:31 PM, Nick Cox <n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk> wrote:
> > Not so; -venndiag- from SSC is more recent and it supersedes anything in the STB.
> >
> > But why be surprised?
> >
> > 1. Writing a Venn diagram program that always looks good and works well is a tricky problem. Wanting the areas exactly right is an easy desideratum to state, but it does not make the problem easier.
> >
> > 2. Jens Lauritsen hasn't found time to port this to the new Stata graphics; like everybody else he is a very busy person.
> >
> > 3. Not many users have the Stata programming skills to write something as good or better, and it seems that none of them have the inclination to do this.
> >
> > 4. StataCorp can be as capricious as any bunch of academics in not doing stuff that doesn't interest them. They can speak for themselves, or not, but I don't sense that this particularly appeals to anyone at StataCorp.
> >
> > 5. Some may share my own personal view that while Venn diagrams are interesting mathematically and in the history of ideas they are of rather little use in data analysis.
> >
> > All likely to be very disappointing to anyone frustrated, no doubt, but surprising? I suggest not.
> >
> > (Michael can also speak for himself, but I think that his book does not purport to survey user-written programs at all.)
> >
> > Nick
> > n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk
> >
> > Philip Burgess
> >
> > I'm trying to graph a Venn diagram using (STB-54)  gr34.3
> >
> > When I run - venndiag var1 var2 - it produces the tabular output
> > correctly but crashes altogether when I gues it is trying to graph the
> > output.
> >
> > I'm surprised that - findit venn - indicates that gr34.3 (2000) is the
> > 'most' recent ado for Venn diagrams. I could find no reference to such
> > in Michael Mitchell's (excellent) VGSG.
> >
> > I wonder whether there is an appropriate ado ora work around. Ideally,
> > I want to generate areas that are poprtioned to the actual data.
> >
> > I'm using Stata/SE 11.1 (born 30 Sept 2010)
> >
> > *
> > *   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/
> >
>
>

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