[Gretl-devel] Contributed function packages (gfn files)

Hello all, I'm pleased to see that we have a large and expanding number of contributed packages on the gretl server. Good work, guys! If you're not a package author the rest of this mail may not concern you but if you are an author, please read on. I've been running various checks on the gfn files, (a) to ensure that changes in gretl CVS haven't broken any of them and (b) to check that the packages themselves are in working order. I found a few small bugs in the packages (noted below) but first let me emphasize a general point: a valid package MUST contain a self-contained and functional sample script. This is for the benefit of both the end user and the package checker (me, at present): I need to be able to extract the sample script from each package and run it "as is" to check that the package actually works. A problem with several packages on the server is that the sample script is broken in some way. The most common breakage is that the "open" command is used but no valid datafile name is provided. The argument to "open" must be either (a) the name of a file that's included in the gretl distribution or (b) a valid URL of the form http://server/path/file that points to a file of a type that gretl can open. Case (a) is preferable; case (b) is OK provided that the URL is likely to remain stable. Also note that in case (a) a full path should NOT be given (that's specific to your system), just the plain name of the file, as in open australia.gdt Note that if you can't come up with suitable data input for your sample script in either of the ways just mentioned, it's OK to use the "nulldata" command and construct artificial data. In that case you should include a "set seed" line so that the output is reproducible. Another problem with some packages is that the command to "include" the gfn file is broken. This must always just give the plain package name, as in include mypackage.gfn without any path stuff. And the include command should not be duplicated. Specifics on the packages: When I found a trivial problem with a package, I fixed the gfn file myself and uploaded the fixed version to the server. If any of the following packages are yours, please sync your own copy to the version that's on the server. * clustered_ols.gfn : The function call in the sample script didn't match the name of the function in the package. * hetero.gfn : The line "include hetero.gfn" was duplicated. * HIP.gfn : Wrong command "include ../HIP.gfn". * SETAR.gfn : The "open" command was invalid (and there was some unsupported use of @variables as arguments to printf). For the following gfn files the sample script was invalid and I wasn't in a position to fix it myself: BVNormal.gfn lmTest.gfn MCO_Ridge.gfn MVStatistic.gfn Panelregression.gfn Ttest.gfn For the time being I'm moving these files out of the public area on the server. If you have a package on this list, please review it and see if you can come up with a working sample script -- we'd like to get your package back on line! If you need to grab a copy from the server, see http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/gretl/cgi-bin/current_fnfiles/invalid/ Allin Cottrell