Martin - Yes, it was gross ignorance. That program was written in 1996,
when I didn't know much about programming with a -clear- option. Back
then, I didn't know the difference betwewen a ".do" and an ".ado" file,
so I made everything an "ado" file, which then put it into my ado path
without my realizing it. I shudder to think how many others like this
are lurking in those old files!
Al
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Martin Weiss
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 1:48 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: st: Re: RE: RE: Re: Separation anxiety (extreme penalty if
mistype -separate- command)
No intrusion into Alan`s work practices intended, but I have a hard time
imagining that you would have a -prog- on your ado-path that -drops
_all- without at least the -, clear- option being present...
HTH
Martin
_______________________
----- Original Message -----
From: "Nick Cox" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 8:41 PM
Subject: st: RE: RE: Re: Separation anxiety (extreme penalty if mistype
-separate- command)
>I am glad it wasn't a -separate- problem.
>
> The command -separate- itself has never been abbreviatable. When it
> was being written one small issue was whether the intended name leant
> itself to minor spelling mistakes. ("separate" was one of those words
> I had to check repeatedly in a dictionary.) The decision was that if
> the user typed -sep_e_rate-, this is promptly corrected with a little
> message and diversion of the command to -separate-, as some users may
> have discovered. (That is, there is an undocumented -sep_e_rate-
> command.) (I add the _ _ only to stop this mailer continually
> correcting the
> misspelling.) This may still be the only instance in which Stata will
> accept, and correct, incorrect spelling. An odd side-effect of this
> episode is that my long-continued difficulties over the word have
> disappeared.
>
> Nick
> [email protected]
>
> Feiveson, Alan H. (JSC-SK311)
>
> Sorry about the needless anxiety - As Martin suggested, I did have an
> old -sep-program lying around that dropped _all. Thanks, Martin
>
> Martin Weiss
>
> If that is true, it is pretty serious. So I get "unrecognized command:
> sep"
> with my 10.1 Stata. Your error "invalid syntax" makes me think you
> have a command that I do not have. What does -which sep- tell you?
>
> Feiveson, Alan H.
>
>> Hello - More than once I have inadvertently typed something like "sep
>> var, by(cat)", when I meant to type "separate var,by(cat)" . The
>> result is an error, but far worse, Stata wipes out my whole data set
>> when I do this, or even if I simply type "sep":
>>
>>
>> . use rad_protein_collapsed_4group_binomial.dta
>>
>> . des,short
>>
>> Contains data from rad_protein_collapsed_4group_binomial.dta
>> obs: 24
>> vars: 52 20 Nov 2008 12:42
>> size: 4,464 (99.9% of memory free)
>> Sorted by: rad time group
>>
>> . sep
>> invalid syntax
>> r(198);
>>
>> . des,short
>>
>> Contains data
>> obs: 0
>> vars: 0
>> size: 0 (100.0% of memory free)
>> Sorted by:
>>
>
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>
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