Stata Corp. has updated Stata 7, its software for statistical analysis, to run natively in Mac OS X. As a Carbonized application, it will also run on Mac OS 8.6/9.x with the CarbonLib extensions installed.
Current users of Stata 7 for Macintosh may upgrade at no charge. Stata for Macintosh OS X has been in beta testing since April.
Stata 7 includes 91 new commands and 368 pages of new documentation. Nearly every aspect of Stata has been touched, from statistics to programming language, to the way output is displayed, and even including a new bottom layer on which future graphics will be developed. Despite its growth, Stata 7 purportedly executes 8 to 12 percent faster than Stata 6.
In an online message to Mac users, the folks at Stata Corp. say they’re “pleased to be the first statistical software package available that will run natively in OS X. They also promise to “continue to develop and provide support for Macintosh” and to “release new versions of Stata simultaneously on all supported platforms [Mac, Windows, and Unix].”
When using the Stata 7 update, it’s recommended that you install the update using Mac OS 8.6/9.x rather than Mac OS X. In Mac OS 8.6/9.x, the update requires special software that must be installed in the System Folder for it to run. Installed properly, the update will run in both Mac OS and Mac OS X, according to the folks at Stata. You must also have the release version of Stata installed. The update only contains a minimal set of files and doesn’t contain any of the support files (such as ado-files) required by the application.
Also, Mac OS X no longer requires that you specify the amount of memory an application requires. Stata, on the other hand, requires that you specify how much memory you require for data. To do so, you must set the memory setting from within Stata in the General Preferences dialog. (In the traditional Mac operating system, you must still set the preferred memory setting by selecting Get Info from the File menu in the Finder.)
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