Stata: Data Analysis and Statistical Software

For some years, packages of mine that are usable by Stata 8 or 9 users
have been updated or added to SSC in the following way:

1. I send them to Kit as *.sthlp files because I can't even export
*.hlp from my institution. (Problems like these, which arise from uses
of the extension .hlp in certain other software, were what led Stata
to change the help extension.)

2. Kit renames them as *.hlp files.

Five years on from Stata 10, I have decided that it is high time that
the onus of such changes was shifted, away from Kit to any users of
such files.

Henceforth, files will be added as *.sthlp even to packages that
should run in Stata 8 or Stata 9. It follows that users of such
packages in such versions would need to change their help files to
*.hlp. This will apply only if I write new packages or revise old
ones; otherwise files will remain as they are.

It seems unlikely that this post will be read and remembered by those
whom it might affect. Its main purpose is selfish; I want there to be
somewhere that I can refer people to if they get bitten by this
change, rather than send similar emails to several people, and so I
can say that I did make this change as public as I could.
*
*   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/