Informal -gr_edit- helpfile?

[Andrew Lover]

Recent posts just made me aware of the undocumented -gr_edit- command.

Aside having from a new addition to the Stata 14 wishlist, this command would have saved me lots of headaches at various points- explicit scripting of these tweaks to graphs would be fantastic. Perhaps folks who have used it could post any subcommands they are aware of, to form an informal help file?

An old request along the same lines:
http://www.stata.com/statalist/archi.../msg00656.html

thanks!

[Sergiy Radyakin]

Dear Andrew,

I think it will remain undocumented. Compiling even a rough documentation for it would be a lot of work, and put a lot of constraints. (Right now everything can change, as long as it works; but if it is documented, then StataCorp must commit to certain things being permanent (like the number and types of parameters, etc) and present (even if don't needed)).

You will find a list of the unofficial GDI commands here (last slide):

http://www.stata.com/meeting/dcconf09/dc09_radyakin.pdf

And I should have my notes on them as well. However this is not exactly the gr_edit command which was added in Stata 10, a bit later than this work was done. Not sure why you would need the gr_edit commands. Most users would like to customize the graphs (that is done via gdi). With gr_edit and its cousins you can customize the editor (add a menu item or smth). There might of course be an overlap.

You can always post specific questions and requests on the problems you are solving. Perhaps there are much easier and more documented approaches that other users can point out.

(Needless to say, I also wish I could see a nice manual on this and many other undocumented Stata features).

Best, Sergiy Radyakin

[Andrew Lover]

Thanks Sergiy, that is all very useful.

Re: "Not sure why you would need the gr_edit commands." perhaps I am confused about how -gdi- relates to -gr_edit- as used here?

http://www.statalist.org/forums/foru...text-in-legend

Basically, there are many times when a graph needs small changes to look really nice ('nudging' text elements, etc) and I've been forced to use the graphics editor for these (with obvious reproducibility issues) so these extended commands are all very useful.