Dear all
The development since since January has resulted in a new public version of EpiData Analysis. You may download this from the http://epidata.dk/download.php
Analysis is released as version 3.0 to avoid confusion with EpiData Analysis Classic, which will NOT be updated from version 2.2.
The main new aspect is that the requirement of having [_n] in many commands has been removed. This makes the syntax much simpler and closer to the one used previously.
The improvements and known issues are summarized in my previous mail. A few more adaptations has been introduced, e.g. finetuning of menu's and changing the "erase" command, which is now giving a message if the file was found or not.
Please continue to discuss and comment on this list.
One aspect questioned was the possibility of changing the background to black and text to yellow in Analysis. This is easily done by going into the main "edit" menu, where "colour" now is available. You may also add the following to your setup file, which will set these new values as the default: set "OUTPUT BG COLOUR" := "#2B1616"; set "OUTPUT FONT COLOUR" := "#DBE60B";
In the Editor the highlighting of known commands makes it a bit more subtle, such that you can only change fonts and sizes. (depending on the operating system).
Best wishes
Jens Lauritsen
EpiData Association, Denmark
Dear list-readers
A new updated version of EpiData Analysis (v1.7.99.1) has been placed for your testing on http://epidata.dk/testing.php
Please find below a summary of the changes. In particular notice that the requirement of [_n] in pgm's has been removed, unless you refer to a given observation. I expect the release as public in the coming week or the week after. Please test and report to this list.
As part of my job as a clinical epidemiologist and professor at the Odense University Hospital here in Denmark I have extensively tested the software during the last three months. We now use the pre-public version on a daily basis.
Now we have a running system in new EpiData Analysis. It is run by secretaries, who have no experience in programming. They just click an icon to accomplish: a.import a csv file saved daily from our main IT-patient registration system (EpiData Analysis) b. merge with previously controlled observations to evaluate only new observations (EpiData Analysis) c. quality securing coding in the patient journal. (EpiData EntryClient) d. create SPC graphs in classic analysis (EpiData Analysis Classic) e. create lists for audit of patients where the quality standards were not met.
To run the system in the revised new analysis we only lack possibility of creating graphs, which I expect to include in the coming months, if all goes well ready by the end of this year.
One other aspect we need to tackle is the increasing demand for safety certificates and documentation in relation to secure systems. If any of you are experienced in this area please write me an e-mail (jl at epidata.dk) .
Without the efforts of Torsten Bonde Christiansen (Software design and programming), Jamie Hockin (testing, programming, Mac adaptation) and Hans L. Rieder (testing, approving solutions) the software would not continue to develop.
Please look into the website for inspiration: https://tbrieder.org/epidata/epidata.html
Best wishes
Jens Lauritsen, coordinator and initiator. EpiData Association, Denmark
Changes since v1.6.0.0
Major improvement:
- [_n] is no longer needed, except when desired.
- editor: Completely new. Many aspects improved. Works better in MacOs
- new !output option with save command - allows saving output content
as html
- new "set" option to control format of saved output html|txt
- new "set" option allows user definition of css styles in saved html
output
- new "set" option defines internal css or external reference to css
file in html output
- extended fast createdate function allows conversion of date strings
with named months.
- extended createdate function allows use of national month naming
defined in set
Other new aspects:
- mergevar added as the last in a merged dataset
- default dataset used after merge is the merged one
- keyboard shortcuts unified and simplified.
- main window opens immediately if started with a pgm
- many commands: unified option naming, e.g. !l is labels
Bug fixes: - all solved
- keep : if used in a "for loop" errors could occur
- Assignment: incorrect control of missing in string variables
- validate duplicate : error if a variable was missing
- many minor other bugs or inconsistencies
Bug fixes: - partially solved
- errors in calculations when dividing by zero.
fixed in Linux and MacOS, but not in windows always.
Known issues at this point:
- Analysis does NOT handle header "variables" at all (except keeping
defined ones).
- Sometimes windows 10 gives a "list - index out of bounds" error
in particular when running a selected block from the editor or when running several pgm files within a pgm.