Dear All

In the decisions of development we need to focus at all times to : a. simplify interface, b. create structured and easily understandable terminology c. adaptation to many combinations of users, computers and local language implementations of texts etc.

In order to do so we will attempt to be more precise in terminology

1. We plan to use these definitions: project: all information contained in a given epx file dataset: contains all variables in a single entry form observation: is the data unit observed (formerly called a record) variable: contains a single data entity (formerly sometimes called a field) variable label: the descriptive text for a variable value labels:define legal values and gives a text for each value Any legal value can be given the "missing" status and exported as such

If you have related data (e.g. house -> person -> visit) each of these will be a dataset containing a number of observations recorded in those variables present in a given dataset.

2 We will implement a "non case sensitive" principle. That is v1 and quest1 will be the same variables as V1 and QUEST1. H1 and h1 as a header text will be the same. But obviously the variable labels and header text can contain as well local language characters and any upper/lower case text.

3 EntryClient will get a "save as" possibility in the file menu, since sometimes we have experienced that a network drive was lost during entry, e.g. Z drive: - then any changes was lost since last save because there would also be no timed backup residing on that drive.

4 We will consider whether to implement a timed backup up principle in manager, just like there is one now in entryclient. If connection to the network is lost or the software brakes down, the timed backup file can be used after restarting Manager.

5 We will implement a missing value definition for dates and jumps based on date values.

Please comment on the these aspects if you have ideas, suggestions, find the terminology confusing or have other examples of different terminology across Analysis, EntryClient and Manager.

regards

Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association, Denmark