st: Re: A comment on abbreviations

["Martin Weiss" <martin.weiss1@gmx.de>]

Guilty as charged! But sometimes fast turnaround on the list renders such 
practices necessary. At the end of the day, Stata understands you when you 
enter -h prob-: The correct help file appears, so it is possible to 
understand what the line "prob f p w" means.
Secondly, the output that appears on screen after the command also clearly 
says what Stata has just calculated.
I was not aware that there was an FAQ explicitly prohibiting abbreviations. 
Sorry about that...

HTH
Martin
_______________________
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Svend Juul" <SJ@SOCI.AU.DK>
To: <statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu>
Sent: Sunday, September 21, 2008 1:52 PM
Subject: st: A comment on abbreviations



> Abbreviations make it easier to write a text, but more difficult to read 
> it. Especially if your experience with the language is limited, 
> abbreviations make life difficult. I have the impression that the use of 
> abbreviations at Statalist have increased during the last months, and 
> recently a response included this:
>   prob f p w
>
> It means
>   probit foreign price weight
> - and that is much easier to read.
>
> The Statalist FAQ includes good advice, mostly to less experienced users 
> seeking help. I think it should also include this advice to the more 
> experienced users offering help:
>
>   Be helpful. Avoid abbreviations.
>
> Right?
>
> Svend
>
>
> ________________________________________________________
>
> Svend Juul
> Institut for Folkesundhed, Afdeling for Epidemiologi
> (Institute of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology)
> Vennelyst Boulevard 6
> DK-8000 Aarhus C,  Denmark
> Phone, work:   +45 8942 6090
> Phone, home:   +45 8693 7796
> Fax:           +45 8613 1580
> E-mail:        sj@soci.au.dk
> _________________________________________________________
>
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