I'll comment on the technical issues alone.
My suggestion was that the program code
should wrap what the user gave in compound
double quotes. It wasn't a suggestion
about what the user is expected to type,
although smart code has to handle the
possibility that a user might input
compound double quotes.
I yield to Jean Marie on whether this
is the right fix in principle and also
possible in practice. To that the answer
appears to be No.
Nick
[email protected]
> Second, the behavior of the dialog box in the specific
> example cited. Compound
> quotes is not what the user expected in this particular
> instance. If the dialog
> box assumed the quotes were indeed part of the string and
> inserted compound
> quotes, then it would be creating a logical rather than
> syntactical error. This
> seems far worse than producing code that generates an
> immediate and obvious
> error. Thus, being able to insert compound quotes is no
> solution to the general
> problem. Personally, I think the present behavior is
> correct. The user should
> not expect to have to quote strings. The quotes are
> required by command line
> parsers, but this is a dialog box. The question should be
> whether the dialog
> box permits quotes in the first place (i.e., whether it
> should look for quotes
> and complain about them if found), which brings me to the
> third issue.
>
> The need for compound quotes. Quoting quotes is usually a
> tricky business and
> often is difficult to read. If the capability existed,
> would it produce the
> desired effect? "Not always," would be my answer. Simply
> adding the ability to
> quote quotes does not ensure they will be inserted
> correctly. Take the example
> cited. Compound quotes would not solve the problem. The
> solution in this
> particular instance would be to recognize somehow that the
> user intended to
> simply quote a text string. Then the program would either
> remove them before
> adding its own or not add additional quotes. The real
> question, then, is how
> can the program determine what the user wanted? I submit
> it cannot. Making it
> possible to compound the quotes simply obscures the main
> problem. Moreover,
> would this mean that the user would have to manage any
> compounding of quotes
> within the text string? In other words, is the dialog box
> only to handle
> leading and trailing quotes or is it to examine the entire
> string and insert the
> appropriate number of quotes? I for one wouldn't want to
> be responsible for
> solving this UI programming issue.
>
>
> Dave Moore
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: [email protected]
> > [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of
> Jean Marie
> > Linhart, StataCorp.
> > Sent: Friday, October 31, 2003 8:29 AM
> > To: [email protected]
> > Subject: Re: st: An Apology
> >
> >
> > It was sent to me privately (thank you) that my
> > previous response to Michael Hills with regards to
> > quotes in the -labeldata- dialog box was inappropriate.
> > I wish to convey an immediate apology for being flip --
> > my intention was to be funny in addressing the issue,
> > not that it is an excuse.
> >
> > In all seriousness, I believe that the dialog box
> > is doing as good a job as it can under the circumstances.
> > We will look at whether we need to take a harder look
> > at the dialog parser (which is having a problem with
> > putting in compound double quotes in a "put" statement)
> > and whether it needs some modification, or if there is
> > something that can be done with the command.
> >
> > --Jean Marie
> > [email protected]
> > *
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> >
> >
>
> *
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