Re: [Gretl-devel] C-isms in hansl
Am 19.09.2016 um 23:07 schrieb Lee Adkins:
I've come to like the printf() way of doing things.
Me, too! Otherwise I would have raised the issue years ago. It's not a
personal thing for myself here. I noticed this C-ism with printf() when
I recently learned that even in C++ you can do something like:
<cpp> std::cout << "hey :" << somenumber; </cpp>
So IMO you cannot dismiss this as something only for dummies.
Stata has a very
simple "display" command that allows you to print text and numbers with
less fuss, e.g.,
di "The sample size is " e(N)
I like the "less fuss" part, exactly my point. This is currently not
possible in hansl.
but it is very basic and there is no real control over the
formatting.
I know there are fancier and more complicated ways of formatting output
in Stata, like 'esttab' for tabular data, but it uses the same C like
syntax as gretl.
And I'm not proposing to ditch that syntax from gretl!
BTW, Re Allin's post: I didn't even know that %g can be universally
used, even though I have been using printf() for years. (I'm always
using %d and %f.) If there is such a useful default, why not make it
exactly that, a default? Of course users will have to learn more if they
want more control, but in perhaps 80% of the cases the "less fuss"
solution is all that's needed.
In the end it's a matter of what users want, and the only evidence for
that is my gut feeling and what Jack said about what he was told by many
people. Maybe we should ask on the users list (although it is not
representative of potential gretl users, there will be a conservative
selection bias).
thanks,
sven