Pre-specifying names of list members returned from a function call
by Sven Schreiber
Hi,
see feature request #85 (by myself I must admit):
https://sourceforge.net/p/gretl/feature-requests/85/
Currently a function with a list as a return type must internally set
the names of the list members (series) and the those names are
automatically exported to the function caller. If series with those
names already exist in the outer scope (at the caller level), they would
be overwritten. This is an exception of gretl's principle of function
encapsulation.
I'm suggesting: To provide a cleaner solution of this name clash
problem, such a list-returning function should also accept a string
array argument. The string elements in this array would be used by the
function as the names of the exported list members.
In this context it would be useful to have a built-in easy mechanism to
take the labels from the string array and use it for the returned list
(inside the user-defined function). That is the concrete request right now.
I'm not suggesting to make this thing mandatory any time soon, because
of the backward-compatibility issue.
thanks,
sven
7 years, 6 months
mailing list vs. forum
by Sven Schreiber
Hi,
I know it's a never-ending discussion whether to have a forum or to use
mailing lists. So this is just a "ping".
First I've just noticed that you need 4 clicks to get from the gretl
homepage to the view of current threads in the list. And that assumes
that you know where to click each time. So I think one way to make the
mailing lists more "forum-like" (in a passive read-only) mode is simply
to provide a more direct access to the archives.
Secondly, Allin said that we might want to shop around for the most
suitable platform, instead of just using sourceforge. Ok, but where to
go shopping? Any concrete suggestions? I volunteer to check them out.
Finally, as the Wiki is de facto dead, I wonder if the link from the
homepage should be removed. IMHO it could be mistaken for the
(non-existent) forum and then creates a bad impression.
thanks,
sven
7 years, 10 months
please, help to update uk.po for Ukrainian version
by oleg_komashko＠ukr.net
Dear all,
I started the translation almost 2 years ago.
By some reasons it was postponed for ages
in 2/3 ready state.
Now it has a dozen items to be finished.
The problem is : it is from the 1.9.91 gretl.pot
I do not now how to proceed.
Thanks,
Oleh
8 years
Gretl Tests in GitHub
by Hélio Guilherme
This is a short version of a message waiting moderator clearance.
(was "Proposal for creation of Unit and Acceptance Tests")
(...)
> Hi All,
>
> This is my first adaptation of Allin's test package.
>
>
>> Right now I'm very pressed for time, but I'm putting my test rig at
>>
>> (deleted)
>>
>> so anyone can take a look. It exercises almost 20000 scripts; the testing
>> mechanism utilizes "make" and shell scripts. Each directory contains
>> "output" and "newout" subdirectories. The basic idea is that "make" in a
>> given directory will populate the "newout" directory with output files,
>> then run a "diff" on newout vs "output" (besides reporting any failures).
>> So "output" is supposed to contain "known good" results.
>>
>> You can run everything by typing "make test-all" in the top-level
>> directory. This may take a while; it will produce a composite diff of all
>> new output against all previous output.
>>
>> Anyone running this on their own system should first go into the "bin"
>> directory (under "test-gretl") and edit the file named "sitevars".
>>
>
> This setup still must be done/checked. Path to gretl and libgretl. After
> this, it should be fine for any (Linux) user.
>
> These are the changes I have done:
> Force running Gretl in English.
> After Gretl "newout" has been created those files are edited, so that all
> user ($HOME and test-gretl) paths are replaced to simulate "output"
> original files.
>
> TODO: Remove inconsistent paths, on Allin's original "output" files
> preparation (make new).
> Try to not compare with "output", when applications are not
> installed (Stata, OX, ...)
> Obtain system info (kind of benchmarking, or performance
> factoring)
> Should we also do the NIST tests?
> There is a test that creates two Gnuplot plots, maybe they
> should have output to PNG.
> When I tested in Portuguese, there were warnings on strings max
> length (need tests for all languages).
>
> ---- EOT ----
>
> I have now created a GitHub project to keep the test files. Everyone may
> clone the directory gretl-tests/test-gretl (which are Allin's tests adapted
> to your own machines). After this first testing fixes, I will prepare
> automation system and reporting of the test runs. But first we must ensure
> that there are no missing scripts or data file, and no run when
> applications are not installed (like stata in my case).
>
> There are 902 gretl scripts and in my setup the all_fails file contains 36
> failed, and from these, there are 9 caused by missing gretl scripts (other
> because missing stata, numeric or spacing differences). Better analysis
> will follow after solving easy fails.
>
> The git repository is at: https://github.com/HelioGuilherme66/gretl.git
> There is a gretl-git project which is a clone from sourceforge (It is not
> accessible, because it should be independent).
>
> Attached are some old test files, but you should see latest_tests.zip
> <https://github.com/HelioGuilherme66/gretl/blob/master/gretl-tests/test-gr...>
> .
>
> I expect to receive Pull Requests with the adding of missing data/scripts
> files. I am willing to give Collaborator access to the owners of Gretl and
> major contributors :)
>
> Now that we have a GitHub base, we can think in having Gitter or Slack,
> for instant messaging (I love Slack ;).
>
> Have fun :)
>
I am eagerly waiting for your feedback.
Thanks,
Hélio
8 years
Proposal for creation of Unit and Acceptance Tests
by Hélio Guilherme
Hi all,
My first attempt to send the first version of the files failed. See below
the text:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Hélio Guilherme <helioxentric(a)gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 1:26 AM
Subject: Re: [Gretl-devel] Proposal for creation of Unit and Acceptance
Tests
To: Gretl development <gretl-devel(a)lists.wfu.edu>
Hi All,
This is my first adaptation of Allin's test package.
> Right now I'm very pressed for time, but I'm putting my test rig at
>
> http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/~cottrell/testing/test-gretl.tar.xz
>
> so anyone can take a look. It exercises almost 20000 scripts; the testing
> mechanism utilizes "make" and shell scripts. Each directory contains
> "output" and "newout" subdirectories. The basic idea is that "make" in a
> given directory will populate the "newout" directory with output files,
> then run a "diff" on newout vs "output" (besides reporting any failures).
> So "output" is supposed to contain "known good" results.
>
> You can run everything by typing "make test-all" in the top-level
> directory. This may take a while; it will produce a composite diff of all
> new output against all previous output.
>
> Anyone running this on their own system should first go into the "bin"
> directory (under "test-gretl") and edit the file named "sitevars".
This setup still must be done/checked. Path to gretl and libgretl. After
this, it should be fine for any (Linux) user.
The test-gretl.zip (17MB) is (deleted URL: //
drive.google.com/open?id=0Bx8T-KbkRZold0pkTW1rMDZBZG8)
Attached is a diff of my files vs Allin's.
I also attached here analysis of 2016a and development versions against the
original tests from Allin's package.
All these files are at this folder (deleted URL: //
drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bx8T-KbkRZolWFE5MWxGNm5LLUU&usp=sharing)
(There are obvious differences in R and Octave because of missing
libraries, and missing files, and applications)
My system is Linux CentOS 7.
I don't know if the "baseline" outputs do match the released 2016a (I
suspect not).
These are the changes I have done:
Force running Gretl in English.
After Gretl "newout" has been created those files are edited, so that all
user ($HOME and test-gretl) paths are replaced to simulate "output"
original files.
TODO: Remove inconsistent paths, on Allin's original "output" files
preparation (make new).
Try to not compare with "output", when applications are not
installed (Stata, OX, ...)
Obtain system info (kind of benchmarking, or performance
factoring)
Should we also do the NIST tests?
There is a test that creates two Gnuplot plots, maybe they
should have output to PNG.
When I tested in Portuguese, there were warnings on strings max
length (need tests for all languages).
---- EOT ----
I have now created a GitHub project to keep the test files. Everyone may
clone the directory gretl-tests/test-gretl (which are Allin's tests adapted
to your own machines). After this first testing fixes, I will prepare
automation system and reporting of the test runs. But first we must ensure
that there are no missing scripts or data file, and no run when
applications are not installed (like stata in my case).
There are 902 gretl scripts and in my setup the all_fails file contains 36
failed, and from these, there are 9 caused by missing gretl scripts (other
because missing stata, numeric or spacing differences). Better analysis
will follow after solving easy fails.
The git repository is at: https://github.com/HelioGuilherme66/gretl.git
There is a gretl-git project which is a clone from sourceforge (It is not
accessible, because it should be independent).
Attached are some old test files, but you should see latest_tests.zip
<https://github.com/HelioGuilherme66/gretl/blob/master/gretl-tests/test-gr...>
.
I expect to receive Pull Requests with the adding of missing data/scripts
files. I am willing to give Collaborator access to the owners of Gretl and
major contributors :)
Now that we have a GitHub base, we can think in having Gitter or Slack, for
instant messaging (I love Slack ;).
Have fun :)
8 years
Google as mailing list search engine (terms of use)
by Sven Schreiber
Hi,
the searches on the gretl mailing lists are done / handed over to
Google. Some time (weeks/months?) ago Google changed its terms of
service, and as a side effect requires explicit acceptance. So anybody
who does not accept their terms of service is not able anymore to search
on the gretl mailing lists.
I suspect that the reaction of some people is that they don't understand
why one would decline Google's terms. On the other hand there are also
people that don't see why some software should be free (as in speech) if
Stata (or Eviews, or whatever) already provide (some of) the
functionality...
cheers,
sven
8 years
Error in MAPE formulare in gretl-guide
by Artur T.
Dear Allin and Jack,
I think the formulare for the MAPE criteria in Section 29.4. in the
gretl-guide should be
$ T^{-1} \sum_{t=1}^{T} 100 | \frac{e_t}{y_t} | $
Artur
8 years
gretl 2016b released
by Allin Cottrell
For the benefit of anyone not on the gretl-announce list: there's a
new release on sourceforge today.
Changelog entry:
2016-04-14 version 2016b
- "panel" command, random-effects version: show an overall
Wald chi-square test on the named regressors; also support
the --robust option
- "dataset" command: expose and document the "pad-daily"
option
- "vecm" command: clarify the options available when specify-
ing a restriction on beta via matrices R and q
- Commands that produce both textual output and plots: add
a --plot option to control the format of the plot
- GUI help text: make references to the Gretl User's Guide
chapter-specific, and make the file open at the specified
chapter if the PDF viewer supports that functionality
- GUI "view code" option for function packages: avoid slow
loading of big code buffers
- GUI plot editor: enable selection of point size for graph
styles that use points
- Internal code: introduce several optimizations to speed up
execution of complex scripts
- "foreign" language mechanism: add basic support for Julia
(including editing and execution of Julia programs)
- build: try harder to respect --disable-nls (though this is
very difficult nowadays)
- Fix bug: crash on performing some matrix transformations
using the GUI "icon view"
- Fix bug: broken format in output of actual versus forecast
values in some cases
- Fix bug: CSV import failing in locales that use decimal
comma when file uses decimal comma and also '.' as thousands
marker
- Fix bug: handling of "missingness" in imported daily data
not working quite right
- Fix bug: "omit" command with --auto option failing for
ordered logit/probit models
- Fix bug: potential crash in printing the results of a
random-effects probit model with small RE variance
- Fix bug: GUI access to nonparametric models was broken
- Fix bug: not flagging an error when given a broken right-
hand side specification in the "restrict" command
- Fix bug: matrix-form restrictions on VECM model not being
accepted even when valid, in some cases
- Fix bug: partial parsing of command line when blocked by a
false if-condition could give rise to spurious errors
- Fix bugs: some subtle fail conditions for saving compiled
loops onto functions
- OS X (quartz) build: update to GTK 2.24.29, and fix a GTK
issue which led to crashes on OS X 10.11 (El Capitan)
- OS X (quartz) build: fix problem with gnuplot wxt window,
add Adwaita theme, and make Adwaita the default
- Bundled gnuplot for Windows and OS X: update to 5.1 cvs as
of March 2016
- MS Windows builds: update to OpenBLAS 0.2.18dev.
Allin
8 years
gretl working paper question/proposal
by oleg_komashko＠ukr.net
Dear all,
I'd like to write gretl working
paper named approximately
"Emulating functional programming in hansl"
based on my packages "waldTest", "margeff_el"
"lagreg", and the new submission "tsfcst"
which is in the stage area.
Of course I need an opinion if it's
interesting
Oleh
8 years
Proposal for creation of Unit and Acceptance Tests
by Hélio Guilherme
Dear Allin and Jack, and all other Gretl contributors,
As you may know I am a Software Tester (one of my many skills :) ).
I have noticed sometimes that there are Regressions (errors in Gretl that
were fixed, and later reappeared) and new Bugs like today's exponent
prevalence.
This must be the best Open Source project, where bugs are detected,
reported and fixed (within the hour :). (And sometimes code improvements,
too!)
Well, I am offering my contribution to:
- have a server to do Regression Testing (which I already have setup in my
home)
- create a Unit tests structure, to be run with every code commit
- create an Acceptance/Regression Tests structure to be run periodically,
especially before releasing new versions.
So, I would need to know if there are already any kind of Unit tests, and
to collect as many as possible Gretl files that would use public datasets
(like the ones coming with Gretl), or datasets prepared for testing.
For the Unit tests I have not yet studied the best Framework (maybe plain C
language coding), for the other cases, I plan to use Robot Framework (which
is my favorite). (You folks could benefit from using Robot Framework to do
Data Mining as you may program to simulate the user clicking on web pages
with browsers and obtaining files.)
What do you think? Is this a good discussion starting point?
Thanks,
Hélio
PS: There are many videos and info about Robot Framework. It's home is at
http://robotframework.org/.
8 years
