Re: st: wishlist

[Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com>]

Thanks for the detailed comments. You have thought through the matter
more deeply than I did in my off-the-cuff response.

Nick
njcoxstata@gmail.com


On 7 August 2013 02:39, Sergiy Radyakin <serjradyakin@gmail.com> wrote:
> Peter,  see if my -exi3- is more suitable for your request; the
> description, screenshots and installation instructions are here:
> http://www.radyakin.org/statalist/2013080602/exi3.htm
>
>
> On Tue, Aug 6, 2013 at 6:02 PM, Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Presumably this happens if you type
>>
>> exit, clear
>
> Nick, if option clear is present, Stata will not ask what to do with
> changed data files.
> This happens when the Stata window is closed with the X-button (in
> Windows), but not when a command -exit- is issued from a command line.
> With unsaved changes Stata will abort with error (error code 4) or
> exit silently if option clear is specified. With no unsaved changes
> Stata exits without asking, but this is not an interesting case.
>>
>> but realise that you didn't mean it. Faced with your mild curses,
>> Stata (if it could engage in repartee) would then merely quip that it
>> did what you asked.
>>
>> I guess you want a command rather than a do-file. Is this something
>> like the command?
>>
>> program sexit
>>          version 8.2
>>          save, replace
>>          exit
>> end
>
> Nick, I guess this -exit- needs the -STATA- option (which used to be
> documented, but disappeared from recent versions of the manual, but
> continues to work at least with your version 8.2 statement), otherwise
> i recon nothing will happen: Stata will exit from the sexit program,
> right?
>
> Unconditional saving is also questionable. Presumably you don't want
> the changes to auto.dta to get saved after you try a new program
> crunching it. Or another program (e.g. another instance of Stata) may
> have modified the file in the meanwhile, and you don't want it to be
> overwritten. Or the data might have never been saved before. And if
> one could remember which command -exit- or -sexit- to type at any
> moment, one wouldn't need it anyways.
>
> So the user, as Peter requested must be given a choice of the three
> actions, and only in the case when the data is modified. this is
> possible. It is much more interesting and challenging to capture the
> window closing event, and react to that, so that your custom
> confirmation window appears regardless whether you call the special
> command like sexit to exit, or just close Stata with the system's
> method. However as we know, when Stata is closed with X-button it will
> let the user save the data anyways, so we don't need to handle that
> case here (we would need to had we wanted instead e.g. to save in the
> old format using saveold).
>
>
>
> Question to all the list is the following:
>
> use mydata
> gen x=1
> preserve
> drop x
> gen y=1
> NOW CLOSE STATA SESSION WITH X-BUTTON
>
> It asks me if I want to save changes. It saves modified dataset with y
> only. But it does not seem to -restore- the data later (that I
> preserved) and which differs from original version (by variable x
> only), and of which I indicated that I want to get back with
> -preserve-. If -restore- had fired, Stata would again find unsaved
> data in the memory and should have asked what to do with it. This
> means that if my command was called from a deep stack of commands that
> could modify data and call preserve before calling the next in chain,
> the inner command has no way to exit with saving the changes to those
> outer layers. :(
>
> PS: those who visit the description page I suggest might notice that
> my file name input dialog looks ugly. This is because although
> standard Stata's dialog for file saving 'db save' is available, it
> can't be called from a do file and followed by exit, actual save will
> only be executed after the whole program terminates (which is
> inconvenient).
>
> clear all
> generate x=1
> save_dlg
> window stopbox note "`=c(changed)'"
>
> I will have to think more about how to call the save dialog in Stata 9
> (!) and perform the save operation while generating the dialog on the
> fly (if that is at all possible).
>
> Best, Sergiy
>
>
>>
>> It's deliberate that this fails if there is no data in memory because
>> then it fails to do what is intended, -save- data and -exit-.
>>
>>
>> Nick
>> njcoxstata@gmail.com
>>
>>
>> On 6 August 2013 22:39, Lachenbruch, Peter
>> <Peter.Lachenbruch@oregonstate.edu> wrote:
>>> I have a small request (which never is?)
>>> When I exit Stata I have often forgotten to save my changes - I have the chance to lose my changes or go back (click no).  I'd like a third option - save changes and exit.  It should be an easy do file...
>>>
>>>
>>> Peter A. Lachenbruch,
>>> Professor (retired)
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