Re: [Gretl-devel] functions vs commands (was Re: Octave support)
On Mon, 1 Mar 2010, Allin Cottrell wrote:
On Mon, 1 Mar 2010, Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti wrote:
> The HP/BK-related set variables have no effect on _any_ command. Their
> presence is a relic from a time when multi-argument functions were a
> coding challenge (we're talking before 2007). If we axe them, the
> mourning on my side will be very limited.
OK, we seem to have a consensus on that. In the next release, or
with some "time to digest the deprecation"?
I'd be more ambitious.
We now have a number of ideas for backward-incompatible changes, the
most far-reaching being the abolition of "end if" and "end loop". If
we
have to break people's scripts, let's do it once and for all. My proposal:
release 1.9.0 advertising it as a preparation release for 2.0.0. The
visible changes would be, apart from what is now in CVS, the fact that we
advertise in the loudest and most annoying way that the syntax is about to
change, via warnings, error messages, pop-up windows, you name it.
In the meantime, development continues as normal. When we reach the
following milestones:
- System GMM estimator for dynamic panel data (Blundell-Bond)
- At least EGARCH/GJR
- Bivariate probit / IV probit
which are IMO the main holes in our coverage, we release 2.0.0 with the
new syntax as well. A lot of scripts will go "boom", but by then people
will have seen nagging messages for months and will at least have been
warned.
Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti
Dipartimento di Economia
Università Politecnica delle Marche
r.lucchetti(a)univpm.it
http://www.econ.univpm.it/lucchetti