Re: [Gretl-devel] A small, pedantic gripe about "models" in gretl

-----Original Message----- From: gretl-devel-bounces(a)lists.wfu.edu [mailto:gretl-devel- bounces(a)lists.wfu.edu] On Behalf Of Allin Cottrell Sent: Tuesday, October 13, 2015 2:35 PM To: r.lucchetti(a)univpm.it; Gretl development Subject: Re: [Gretl-devel] A small, pedantic gripe about "models" in gretl On Tue, 13 Oct 2015, Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti wrote: > On Tue, 13 Oct 2015, Hélio Guilherme wrote: > >> Since it is one of the most active/important/used menu item in gretl, >> it is important its name. >> >> Would "Modelization" be a good single name? >> >> Other options: >> Model Specification and Estimation >> >> (I think it is OK to have a long name, because gretl is not prepared >> for small screens like mobile phones) > > IMO "Model" is just fine. Like Allin said, it's shorthand. With the > same logic, the "File" menu should be renamed, too. > > And besides, many sub-entries are organised exactly *by model* (eg the > Time Series submenu -- ARIMA, VAR, etc). Jack's mention of "File" is apt. Allow me to engage in a little more pedantry here ;-) In menu headings for English-language computer interfaces a common trope is to use a singular noun which is also a verb, hence a bivalent abstraction -- as in "File", and also "Model". When you see a "File" menu you don't expect it to pull down a list of files (though a list of recently opened files might be included): the idea is "Come here for operations relating to files; come here if you want to file something." Similarly for "Model": the idea is not that you're going to see a list of models as such, it's "Come here for operations relating to models; come here if you want to model something." If the headings were "Files" or "Models" (plural) the user might expect to see a list of objects of those respective sorts, but not if the abstract category is used. (So I can see where Hélio is coming from with "Modelization" -- seeking the appropriate abstraction. However, the English for "Modelization" is "Model"!) In fact, what you see among the first-order elements under the gretl Model menu is a mixture of names of estimators (OLS), categories of estimators (Robust), classes of data (Time series), and classes of model (Simultaneous equations). What all these elements have in common is that they're to do with econometric modeling. Allin