Re: st: -stylerules- updated on SSC

[Ron�n Conroy <rconroy@rcsi.ie>]

Nick Cox wrote:

> Depends on what anyone means by "many"...
>
> I find that novices often over-comment, as in
>
>         // now find the sum
>         su `myvar' if `touse', meanonly
>         local sum = r(sum)
I think that there is a useful distinction to be made between commenting 
a program and commenting a do file. Most novices under-comment do-files 
that prepare data for analysis and conduct the analysis.

I was reading over some do-files I wrote 10 years ago and horrified at 
the tweaks and changes I made to the data which presumably fixed errors 
identified by the researcher at the time, but whose rationale is nowhere 
documented. But I am less a Stata novice than I was then.

At least, until Mata hits my desktop.

--

Ronan M Conroy (rconroy@rcsi.ie) 
Senior Lecturer in Biostatistics 
Royal College of Surgeons 
Dublin 2, Ireland 
+353 1 402 2431 (fax 2764) 
-------------------- 
Just say no to drug reps 
http://www.nofreelunch.org/

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