This has been partly answered already.
-findit- won't find stuff if a connection
is broken. It accesses a database re-created
daily. This is explained in the manual.
-findit- may well find multiple versions
of a program, if for example that program
has also been published in the STB or SJ.
In these cases I'm afraid virtually
all possibilities _might_ exist:
1. SSC holds a later version of a program
previously published in the STB and/or SJ.
2. The opposite is true.
3. The version on SSC and the STB/SJ
files is essentially identical.
So what can you do?
Authors
=======
Please remember to send your _updates_
of stuff previously published in
the STB or the SJ to the Editors of the
Stata Journal.
Users
=====
Check versions using -which-. You
can peek at files remotely using
-type- or -ssc type-.
Report specific problems to the
program authors, the SSC maintainer
(Kit Baum) or the SJ editors
([email protected]). Note
that the most productive Stata
programmers outside StataCorp
are usually zealous in flagging
separate versions separately
and/or updating their versions on SSC
(they mostly have great pride in their work and have
no wish to receive bug reports).
I hope that covers the key
generalities. I can't comment on
the specific problems mentioned
by Michael without knowing any details, but
if his students have encountered problems
not explained by the above we'd like to know
about them.
However, there is a tail of insoluble problems
with user-written stuff seemingly
beyond anyone's control.
1. Some users have in effect disappeared
and are not visibly maintaining or supporting
their programs.
2. Some users have not fixed bugs notified
to them.
Nick
[email protected]
Michael S. Hanson
> On Mar 10, 2005, at 11:49 AM, Richard Williams wrote:
>
> > I suspect there is some sort of temporary problem involving
> -findit-
> > and ssc. -findit- is not finding stuff I know is on ssc, but the
> > -ssc- commands seem to work.
>
> I have noticed this behavior on occasion over the past
> few weeks: I
> have instructed the students in my Econometrics course to use
> -findit-
> for various things, and -- as others have noted recently -- we have
> found differences between what it lists versus what's
> available on SSC.
> In one case, -findit- located an older version of a program
> that had a
> more recent version on -ssc-. I had concluded that -findit- was not
> comprehensive, but (at best) a first step -- is it meant to be a
> "one-stop" source of internet-available Stata programs?
>
*
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
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