Menu adjustment

[Sergiy Radyakin]

Dear All,

Stata's command : window menu append .... allows adding user-defined menu items as described in the manual.

I am looking for a way to:

1. determine, which menu items are already added in such a manner;
2. selectively remove certain items or sub-menus based on their title text or position;
3. make the menu adjustments automatically upon installing a package, and [removal] automatically upon uninstalling a package, for example, by supplying a *.mnu file as part of the package.
4. make menu adjustments permanent (last between sessions). I am aware of the role of user-profile for this, but looking for a solution, which will not have the user deadlocking his system by corrupting the profile, or affecting other menus that may be pre-written there.
5. receive an error if trying to add an item which is already in the menu (currently a second item with the same name will be added, which is less preferable, imho).

I would also like to confirm if there is any convention on placement of menu commands. I am on the fence between

1. thematic mapping (data commands, to User-->Data, graphing commands to User-->Graphics, estimations commands to User-->Statistics), and
2. package-based mapping (commands of x.pkg to User-->X, commands of y.pkg to User-->Y, etc).

The second looks more portable and easier for the developer. But I wanted also to hear from the user perspective.

Thank you,
Sergiy Radyakin