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Re: st: RE: mulitple comments using // and #d;


From   "Michael S. Hanson" <[email protected]>
To   [email protected]
Subject   Re: st: RE: mulitple comments using // and #d;
Date   Sat, 2 Sep 2006 12:05:16 -0400

�.

On Sep 1, 2006, at 5:07 PM, SamL wrote:

Please don't do follow Mike's advice. Elegant though it may be to retire
-delimit-, several factors necessitate maintaining the command. I'll
mention only two.
[snip]

One need not use delimit if one does not want to do so. But retiring the
command? That seems unwarranted.

On Fri, 1 Sep 2006, Michael S. Hanson wrote:


At best, I would suggest, it is a relic of times gone by, and should be depreciated in favor of ///.
Sam (and others):

Notice I never suggested that the -delimit- command be eliminated. It obviously would be undesirable for legacy code. As noted above, I suggested it should be depreciated. Type -help fit- for one example of depreciated code.

You could still use -fit- to estimate a linear regression -- indeed, I have a colleague who uses it frequently -- but it is depreciated: there are no examples of -fit- in the manuals (that I could find), and it is not recommended (or even mentioned) to most users. Due to the occasional unusual behavior of -delimit- (evidenced both by the exchange earlier in this thread and my own experience teaching Stata in my courses), I would suggest that it too be depreciated. Substantively, I would like to encourage those who provide code for learning Stata (manuals, on-line resources, etc.) eschew the use of -delimit- and * comments, and adopt the more modern use of // comments and /// line continuations.

Obviously, individual users are free to use whatever conventions they prefer -- just as people can still use -fit- if they choose. But when there exist alternatives that are better for most users, IMO those should be promoted.

-- Mike


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