Great! One more reason to use Linux (I have a dual booting machine and test both Linux and Windows versions) This way of defining new variables doesn't look so bad. I guess I can better my computing habits by learning this method of handling data. This actually looks more powerful. You are right. There are probably much more important things to worry about. Still, this might be a nice addition in the longrun since the spreadsheet is already there and it actually looks pretty decent even without features. On 5/3/06, gretl-users-request(a)ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu <gretl-users-request(a)ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu&gt; wrote: > Send Gretl-users mailing list submissions to > gretl-users(a)ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > > http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/mailman/listinfo/gretl-users > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > gretl-users-request(a)ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu > > You can reach the person managing the list at > gretl-users-owner(a)ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Gretl-users digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. GRETL Feature Suggestion (Talha Yalta) > 2. Re: GRETL Feature Suggestion (Allin Cottrell) > 3. homogeneity (Zhukov Pavel) > 4. Gretl in Portuguese (Claudio Puty) > > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: "Talha Yalta" <talhayalta(a)gmail.com&gt; > To: gretl-users(a)ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu > Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 18:06:28 -0400 > Subject: [Gretl-users] GRETL Feature Suggestion > Hi: > > I am a Ph.D. candidate at Fordham University in NY and I am using > Gretl extensively for a few months now. I am a big fan of linux and > open source software and I must say I am very impressed with Gretl. I > would like to thank all the contributors for bringing us this elegant > and very high quality software which is a pure joy to use. > > I would also like to suggest a few new features: > > I usually work with PSID data that contains more than 200 columns and > 30000 rows and I need to create a number of dummies and bring the > sample to a more manageble size (say 4000 observations). For this > task, I really wanted to use openoffice calc and gnumeric but > unfortunately I realized that MS excel is much more efficient working > with large files since opensource alternatives become very sluggish > even with data containing about 10000 observations. > > Now, I know that Gretl has a built in spreadsheet and it looks like it > is quite efficient. So I think it would be a great idea to improve > this feature a little bit: > > (1)- First of all, when I try to open my data in spreadsheet mode I > get an error message saying that I cannot open spreadsheet that has > more than 1600 rows. This doesn't make sense to me. We are allowed to > use very large data sets, why cannot have this feature cripled? > (2)- Related with (1), is there a limit in the number of columns in > Gretl's spreadsheet? We know that excel, openoffiice and gnumeric have > a limit of 255 columns. This may be more than enough for everyday > tasks but not always for research. Of course one can use other > specialized software such as dbase but it would be more efficient to > be able to use the one already available in Gretl especially since it > doesn't look like a memory hog like the others. > (3)-Of course we need the ability to do some basic mathematical and > logical operations within cells so that we can easily define new data > columns. I know we can use the console or the data menu to add new > variables such as logs, dummies and lags based on existing variables > but this is not enough. > Consider a simple command that can be used in other spreadsheets: > "=IF(AND(A1=1,B1=1),LOG(C1),"na")" > This command creates a new variable based on 3 existing variables very > easily and efficiently. I am not sure how I can achieve this in Gretl > but if it requires writing a program or a loop, this is counter > intuitive. > (4)- And as always new features have to be implemented very > efficiently using very optimized routines so that Gretl doesn't become > a memory hog like many other commercial (and sometimes open source) > programs. > > With all this functionality fit into such a small package, Gretl > already speaks for how open source software are usually much better > and efficient than commercial alternatives. If new features are added > in this fashion it is easy to predict that soon we will have a program > that has all the functionalty of expensive software and in a much > smaller package, which represents a much higher level of quality and > elegance. This would be very welcome within the economics profession, > since we are becoming more and more dependent on specialized software > to carry out our research. > > Sincerely, > A. Talha YALTA > > -- > Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you > nothing. It was here first. - Mark Twain > -- > > > > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Allin Cottrell <cottrell(a)wfu.edu&gt; > To: Gretl list <gretl-users(a)ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu&gt; > Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 21:51:04 -0400 (EDT) > Subject: Re: [Gretl-users] GRETL Feature Suggestion > On Tue, 2 May 2006, Talha Yalta wrote: > > > I am a Ph.D. candidate at Fordham University in NY and I am > > using Gretl extensively for a few months now. I am a big fan of > > linux and open source software and I must say I am very > > impressed with Gretl. I would like to thank all the contributors > > for bringing us this elegant and very high quality software > > which is a pure joy to use. > > Thank you, glad you like the program! > > > I would also like to suggest a few new features: > > > > I usually work with PSID data that contains more than 200 > > columns and 30000 rows and I need to create a number of dummies > > and bring the sample to a more manageble size (say 4000 > > observations)... > > > > Now, I know that Gretl has a built in spreadsheet and it looks > > like it is quite efficient. So I think it would be a great idea > > to improve this feature a little bit: > > > > > (2)- Related with (1), is there a limit in the number of columns > > in Gretl's spreadsheet? > > Not that I know of, but there may be a de facto limit for that > sort of GTK window on MS Windows, again. > > > (3)-Of course we need the ability to do some basic mathematical and > > logical operations within cells so that we can easily define new data > > columns. I know we can use the console or the data menu to add new > > variables such as logs, dummies and lags based on existing variables > > but this is not enough. > > This sort of variable-generating command can be executed using a > script, via the gretl console, or using the dialog box for > "defining a new variable" at the foot of the Variable menu. > > This feature is really intended for data entry or minor editing of > an existing dataset. > > Allin Cottrell > > > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Zhukov Pavel <zeus(a)hovel.ru&gt; > To: gretl-users(a)ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu > Date: Wed, 3 May 2006 16:19:51 +0400 > Subject: [Gretl-users] homogeneity > Does gretl contains a homogeneity test? > Does gretl contains Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for normality? > > > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: "Claudio Puty" <cputy(a)ufpa.br&gt; > To: <gretl-users(a)ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu&gt; > Date: Wed, 3 May 2006 09:42:40 -0300 > Subject: [Gretl-users] Gretl in Portuguese > > > > Dear members of the list, > > > > I am an economics professor at the Federal University of Para in > Belém/Brazil (www.ufpa.br). We have a group of people in my department who > are very interested in using Gretl in our Linux labs for undergraduate > teaching. > > I was very happy to know that Gretl has now a Portuguese version, which will > help popularize it in Brazil. However, I am still having trouble setting it > up in Portuguese on my Windows PC. I have followed every step in Gretl's > support page and I have successfully managed to shift into Italian, French > and Spanish by using the command " set LANG=es (pt, fr, etc)" in the ms/dos > simulator. Am I missing something? > > > > > > Sincerely, > > > > Claudio Puty > > > > > > > > --- > > Cláudio Castelo Branco Puty > > Professor Adjunto > > Departamento de Economia > > Universidade Federal do Pará > > Rua Augusto Corrêa, nº 1 > Belém-Pará > > 66.075-110 > > > _______________________________________________ > Gretl-users mailing list > Gretl-users(a)ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu > http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/mailman/listinfo/gretl-users > > > -- Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first. - Mark Twain --