st: Stat/Transfer 9 already defaults to Stata 10, so be careful

[Richard Williams <Richard.A.Williams.5@ND.edu>]

Here is a quirky little problem in case anyone else encounters it:  I 
got Stat/Transfer 9 today as well as its upgrade patch.  I was 
puzzled because Roger Newson's -stcmd- and -inputst- commands 
(available from SSC) suddenly stopped working right - specifically I 
got error messages to the effect that the files created were not in 
Stata format.  It finally occurred to me that Stat/Transfer 9 was 
probably already defaulting to Stata 10 format.  At least until I get 
Stata 10, that is not a good thing, and it will never be good for 
someone who doesn't get Stata 10.

Here is the workaround I came up with: in the folder  C:\Program 
Files\StatTransfer9 (or wherever the program is located) create a 
file called profile.stc.  That file should contain the line

set write-old-ver 9

or, if you prefer, 8 or 7 or whatever.  If you are running the 
command processor interactively, you can give the set write-old-ver 
command interactively as well.  If you are running Stat/Transfer via 
the Windows interface, in Options (4) you can set the version of 
Stata you want (but this only seems to apply when using the Windows interface).

One other tidbit: Stat/Transfer 9 now uses an activation code 
system.  As I understand it, the software can only be installed on 
one machine at a time, although you can de-activate and re-activate 
on another machine.  I don't mind reasonable copy-protection, but 
personally I think most software should be usable on both a desktop 
and a laptop by the same person.  You can have both versions 8 and 9 
installed at the same time, so you may wish to also keep 8 installed 
if you already have it.


-------------------------------------------
Richard Williams, Notre Dame Dept of Sociology
OFFICE: (574)631-6668, (574)631-6463
HOME:   (574)289-5227
EMAIL:  Richard.A.Williams.5@ND.Edu
WWW:    http://www.nd.edu/~rwilliam

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