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st: Re: integration of Stata routines


From   Kit Baum <[email protected]>
To   [email protected]
Subject   st: Re: integration of Stata routines
Date   Mon, 25 Oct 2004 09:32:53 -0400

On Oct 25, 2004, at 2:33 AM, Daniel wrote:

 I am pretty ambivalent about
Stata being better on integrating user-written routines into official
program. I realize that it's probably a pain to Stata Inc, but I do
notice that until I have a real need to have something be done, I
don't go looking for it in SSC or the Archives - I look in the command
helps. So sometimes, because I am lazy, I miss out on some cool
routines.
As far as I can see StataCorp developers 'adopt' routines from the user community when they think they (1) fit a ( more or less widely-)expressed need, (2) where the user code (or at least the interface design) is decent enough to serve as a starting point for professional development (jncluding the development of dialogs, etc.), and (3) where the company is willing to take on the added burden of top-quality technical support. Therefore, you see something like the peculiarity of [r] meta, explaining why there is no official support for meta-analysis (for the third reason above: from what they have said, no one on staff at StataCorp feels that they could provide the knowledgeable level of support that the company considers necessary).

That said, there are many good user routines out there (including a number of my own!) that have not been 'adopted' into official Stata, for one or more of the reasons above. But findit will locate all of them, whether they are in SSC, the STB, the SJ, or on other user sites. Laziness that does not permit typing 'findit' rather than 'help' does not seem very compelling in terms of saved effort--especially since 'help' only works if you know what the command is named in the first place.

Kit Baum, Boston College Economics
http://ideas.repec.org/e/pba1.html

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