st: -sparkline- and -tabplot- revised on SSC

[Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com>]

Thanks as usual to Kit Baum, files for my packages -sparkline- and
-tabplot- have been revised on SSC. If interested, please use -ssc- or
-adoupdate- to install or update, as appropriate.

More details on what's new follow my signature for those interested.

Nick

-sparkline-

This is a relatively new package announced in
<http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2013-01/msg00922.html>

Stata 9.2 is required.

I have added several more references to the help. Also, I added a
-vertical- option to allow line plots to be stacked horizontally
within panels. This is important for many of my colleagues and
students who plot series obtained from bores or cores of sediment with
depth on the vertical axis.

While adding this functionality with my right hand, I took away some
functionality with my left. In the unlikely event that you liked the
first published version of -sparkline- _and_ also particularly liked
its -separate()- option, then copy -sparkline-'s files under different
names, e.g. sparkline0.ado, sparkline0.hlp, before you update. Simply,
it proved too awkward to keep and explain both -vertical- and a
-separate()- option.

-tabplot-

This is an older package. Stata 8 is required.

The code is as previously updated, *! 2.6.1 NJC 19 Oct 2012, and the
changes concern more references and examples in the help.

The major thrust of -tabplot- is this. Stacking bars end-to-end or
placing bars side by side on the same axis remain very popular as ways
of showing two-way or three-way tables of frequencies or other
additive quantities. However, they are often tricky to read and
interpret. The format of a table of bars is often as easy or easier to
think about, and has other advantages too, e.g.

* zeros or very small frequencies or percents are clearly exposed

* what is what can be read off from axis labelling, rather than
relying on a separate key or legend

* those so minded can hybridise graphs and tables by showing numerical values.

Naturally, there is plenty of room for disagreement here, on a variety
of statistical, psychological and aesthetic grounds.

On -tabplot-: those who want examples to see what I am talking about
will find them, courtesy of friends, at

http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/faq/graph/njcplot.htm

or

http://www.survey-design.com.au/Usergraphs.html

although in both cases please note that one decimal place is now the
default for any display of percents.

In accordance with my personal policy explained at

<http://hsphsun3.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/lwgate/STATALIST/archives/statalist.1208/date/article-918.html>

help files for these packages are now supplied as sthlp files, so any
Stata 8 or 9 users would need to convert to .hlp files.
*
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