Nick Cox
I did not by any means intend to disparage the quality of Stata
documentation. Indeed its documentation is one of Stata's strengths.
Nevertheless, I doubt very much if many, or any, people buy the manuals
who are not interested in using the software.
Bill
-----Original Message-----
From: Nick Cox [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2003 1:10 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: st: PDF Stata 8 manuals
William Dupont
> I have no idea how much profit Stata makes from their manuals, but I
> would assume that Stata is primarily a statistical software company
> and only secondarily a publishing company.
Who knows? Economics is full of surprises.
I have heard it said that restaurants are lucky to break even on main
courses, but make their profit on starters and desserts.
> Stata is of limited value without the
> documentation and the manuals are of no value whatsoever without
> Stata.
This is an exaggeration. The manuals carry a lot
of good explanation of various methods. It would be
surprising if anyone bought them for that reason alone,
but "no value whatsover" is too harsh. I certainly
buy books on software I never use if the ideas covered
are interesting or useful, although they're an order
of magnitude cheaper.
*
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
*
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
