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Re: st: RE: Statalist advice: a summary


From   Nick Winter <[email protected]>
To   [email protected]
Subject   Re: st: RE: Statalist advice: a summary
Date   Wed, 23 May 2012 14:30:36 -0400

The STATA 1.0 Reference Guide (that accompanied the User's Manual, it seems) is available here:

http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/sca/

as discussed in this 2006 Statalist posting:

http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/2006-04/msg00411.html

Does anyone still HAVE Stata 1.0?

- Nick Winter


On 5/23/2012 11:41 AM, Nick Cox wrote:
There's much more history in Stata Journal 5(1). The whole issue is
way out of the 3-year window, so everyone can look. Bill tells much
more of the two men in a California garage story about Stata's early
years. (Well, not the garage.)

http://www.stata-journal.com/sj5-1.html

On Wed, May 23, 2012 at 4:29 PM, William Gould, StataCorp LP
<[email protected]>  wrote:
Richard Williams<[email protected]>  wrote,

The first version of Stata was in fact called STATA. Old habits just
die hard for some people.
I didn't remember that, but it's true.

I just had someone open the display cabinet outside the Main
Conference Room in Building 2 and I retrieved from it the first copy
of "The Stata User's Guide", First Edition, November 1984.  The book
still looks good.

The book is jarring to open because, rather than being typeset -- or
TeXset -- the camera-ready pages were produced on a IBM Selectric
typewriter.

And there it was:  STATA.  It was all through the little 152-page book.
Early on there's even an illustration of invoking Stata:

        A>  stata

        ==S=T=A=T=A==1.0  Copyright (C) 1984 by ==C=R=C==

        . _

I learned that Stata 1.0 had 46 commands:

     1. #delimit {cr | ;}

     2. #review [# [#]]

     3. append using<filename>

     4. beep

     5. by<varlist>:<STATA_command>

     6. capture<STATA_command>

     7. confirm existence   [<string>]
                variable    [<varlist>]
                newvariable [<varlist>]

     8. convert [<varlist>] [in] [if] [=<exp>]

     9. [by:] correlate [<varlist>] [=<exp>] [in] [if]

    10. [by:] count [in] [if]

    11. describe [ {<varlist>  | using<filename>  ]

    12. dir<DOS_file_specification>

    13. discard

    14. display [[=<exp>  | "<string>"] ...] [if]

    15. do<filename>  [<parameterlist>]

    16. drop<varlist>
        [by:] drop in<range>  [if<exp>]
        [by:] drop if<exp>     [in<range>]

    17. erase<DOS-file_specification>

    18. exit [if<exp>]

    19. expand =<exp>  [if] [in]

    20. format<varlist>  <%fmt>

    21. [by:] generate<newvar>  =<exp>  [if] [in]

    22. help [<command_name>]

    23. infile<newvarlist>  [_skip[(<#>)]] [...] using<filename>  [if] [in]

    24. input<newvarlist>

    25. label data     "<label>"
        label variable "<Label>"
        label values<labelname>
        label define<labelname>  <#>  "<label>" ...
        label drop<labelnamelist>
        label list<labelnamelist>
        label save<labelnamelist>  using<filename>

    26. [by:] list [<varlist>] [if] [in]

    27. macro define<macroname>  "<string>"
        macro dir
        macro drop<macronamelist>
        macro list<macronamelist>

    28. merge [<varlist>] using<filename>

    29. [by:] modify [<varlist>] [in] [if]

    30. more

    31. outfile [<varlist>] using<filename>  [in] [if]

    32. [by:] plot<yvar1>  [<yvar2>  ...]<xvar>  [in] [if]

    33. query

    34. [by:] regress<yvar>  [<varlist1>  [(<varlist2>)]] [=<exp>] [if] [in]

    35. rename<oldvarname>  <newvarname>

    36. [by:] replace<varname>  =<exp>  [if] [in]

    37. run<filename>  [<parameterlist>]

    38. save<filename>

    39. set beep     {on       | off}
            contents {data     | xp}
            display  {linesize | pagesize}<#>
            encode   "<string>"
            help<filename>
            maxobs<#>  [lrecl<#>]
            maxvar<#>  [lrecl<#>]
            more<#>
            obs<#>
            output   {proc | inform | error}
            prefix<string>
            seed<#>
            spool    {linesize | pagesize}<#>
            type     {int | long | float | double}

    40. sort<varlist>  [in]

    41. spool { using<filename>  | on | off | close }

    42. [by:] summarize [<varlist>] [=<exp>] [if] [in]

    43. [by:] tabulate [<varlist>] [=<exp>] [if] [in]

    44. test<exp>  =<exp>

    45. type<filename>

    46. use<filename>


I should explain that -spool- (#39 and #41) was the original word
for -log- and that -set beep on- (#39) was one of the more useful
commands.  -set beep- made an audible beep once a command finished,
which woke you up.  Here are some run times:

     . summarize                    (50 obs/12 vars)   7.84 secs
     . summarize resid, detail      (50 obs)           9.93
     . regress provit exp exp2      (20 obs)          12.80
     . sort resid                   (50 obs)           2.73
     . generate newvar = ...        (50 obs)           1.94
     . tabulate rescat              (50 obs)           4.91

In those days, you could not turn rmsg turned off, so run times
are throughout the manual.  You couldn't turn rmsg off because we
were proud of them.  Stata ran like greased lightening.

Okay, I'll stop being self-indulgent now.

-- Bill
[email protected]
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