If that's the question, and the answer
has to be short, my view is Yes rather than No.
But I am surprised at the implication that
programmers summarising their programs are
somehow not trying to do that using appropriate
words. I've not yet interacted with any programmer
who wasn't aware of the need for that.
Nevertheless Joseph's advice is undoubtedly good
advice.
Nick
[email protected]
Joseph Coveney
> So, "Would it be worthwhile for programmers to provide key
> words, perhaps in
> the command's help file, to be detected by -search- or
> -findit-? . . ." To
> distill the feedback so far,
>
> Fred Wolfe: Yes, but in the command's ado-file
> Kit Baum: Yes, but in the command's package file
> Nick Cox: No
>
> In the absence of a consensus, the following observations and
> suggestion for
> a compromise might be helpful.
>
> First, to be fair to StataCorp, -findit- (or -net search . .
> ., pkg-) *does*
> already do a keyword search as well as it can throughout the
> package file's
> descriptive text, if I understand its actions correctly. And
> so it's vital
> to the mutual success of contributor and future contribution seeker to
> assure that pertinent keywords appear in that text. Perhaps
> a note to this
> effect added to the -ssc submit- guidance document would be
> beneficial, that
> is, the author is alerted to the benefit of writing the text
> of the package
> file's descriptive text to include deliberately considered
> keyword-style
> terms, where this might not have been among the objectives
> beforehand in
> preparing it. This, without imposing a new standard for acceptance.
>
> It will always be a matter of judgment when the list is
> reasonably but not
> cumbersomely inclusive. But in general, if the package
> description text is
> written with an eye toward incorporating salient keyword-style terms
> somewhere in it, then the chances are increased that the
> mindsets of author
> and future user will align at least to the extent that the
> package won't
> remain hidden from users using -findit-, who naturally have
> an inclination
> to search using keyword-type terms.
*
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