Re: Implicit GUI transformations

[Ben Pfaff]

John Darrington <address@hidden> writes:

> On Sun, Nov 20, 2005 at 11:12:17AM -0800, Ben Pfaff wrote:
> [...]
> I probably meant "procedure" rather than "transformation" (I'm not too
> sure what the difference actually is).   

A transformation is just appended to the list of operations to
perform the next time the data is read (e.g. COMPUTE).  A
procedure reads the data, performs the transformations, and
typically does some sort of data analysis whose results are
displayed for the user (e.g. EXAMINE, REGRESSION).  A few
commands are both transformation and procedure (e.g. DESCRIPTIVES
with Z-scores requested) but most commands are one or the other
(or another category entirely).

> The main point is that a lot of the functionality to do with
> adding/deleting/renaming/changing variables which I've been
> trying to do in the gui, ought actually to be done in the
> backend.  The gui should just pass the request for the
> transformation/procedure, and update it's screen to reflect the
> current dictionary and casefile.  But it means that there might
> be several new transformations/procedures which are not listed
> as such in the manual, and not available through "syntax".

Okay, we should consider adding commands (of whatever type) as
appropriate to help out, at least where there is no good existing
sequence of commands with the same effect.

>      Actually, what *should* happen to value labels in converting
>      between variable types?
>
> Hadn't really thought about it.  My guess is that they get dropped.
> I'll investigate a bit further. 

I suppose we could convert them in the same way as data values.
i.e. a string containing "123" would get converted to number 123
as we convert strings to numbers.

[...]

> How are people finding the gui now?  I've been able to load and edit a
> number of 3rd party system files which is encouraging.

I haven't tried the GUI in a while but I'll try to take another
look tonight or tomorrow.
-- 
"Now I have to go wash my mind out with soap."
--Derick Siddoway