In the design of v2.0 of EpiData Analysis I wish to simplify and clarify the use of options and "set" definitions to a unified approach. And this principle is more important than backwards continuation of an unclear principle. The reason is among other that v2.0 will include more statistics, e.g. gamma coefficient for ordinal data and exact statistics for tables in general.
Another intention is to have more options and fewer commands, but to assist users by more intuitive dialogs. E.g. as now where graph commands can be specified with a structured dialog where most options are available. The intention is that : v2.0: will include more functionality at the command level, but the dialogs helping beginners will come later.
The problem with the current way of implementation is that there is a non-unified approach to what is defined at command level and what at "set" level. Mostly due to the way it was done in Epi6. And this confuses users.
When the first release of v2.0 is ready all users will be able to comment on the actual implementation of the principles. The release of v2.0 for test will be made when we have reached a certain level of clarification. We are not quite there yet. But good progress is being made.
I would like users to comment on these decisions: ................................................................................................................. option: A specification for a given command. These are a combination of / and letters or numbers All options are made as short as possible and there is no intention to try to make the option name understandable, but in the documentation they should all be explained. A given designation for an option should mean the same in all commands if possible. e.g. /m is always allow missing values
set: a general specification for running the programme or setting formats. The first word of a "set" tells what this specifices. General which cannot obey this rule should be avoided. e.g. set display databrowser = on/off (will always show data browser in the background). ................................................................................................................. All showing of labels, values etc are defined by these "set" commands: set var label = on/off ( show or hide variable label) set var name = on/off (removes name of var if the same as first word in variable label) set var value = on/off (controls whether actual numerical value are shown) set var label = on/off (controls showing of "comment legal/value labels")
e.g. set var value = off: show only value labels in tables (but show values if no value labels are defined) ................................................................................................................. Creation and display of statistical tests, percentages etc are moved to each command: e.g. means age sex (only descriptive summaries are shown) means age sex /t (will display t test if one group and f test +Bartletts test with more groups) tables agegrp sex (only showns counts) tab agegrp sex /chi (shows chi square values) tab agegrp sex /r /c (would add row and column percentages) tab agegrp sex /t (would add total percentages with no decimal points) ................................................................................................................. Format of estimates and confidence intervals and table column headers are defined as "set": e.g. TABLE PERCENT HEADER ROW % TABLE PERCENT FORMAT ROW P1{} ................................................................................................................. Format of Confidence Intervals are
TABLE CI HEADER (95% CI) TABLE CI FORMAT C2-() .................................................................................................................
Regards
Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association