Unable to install tab_chi

[Sara Kay]

I'm trying to install tab_chi but getting this error:

ssc install tab_chi
checking tab_chi consistency and verifying not already installed...
web error 403
could not copy http://fmwww.bc.edu/repec/bocode/c/chitest.hlp
(no action taken)
r(679);

Any idea how I can get this? I have been able to install other packages successfully.

[Hemanshu Kumar]

Probably just a temporary internet error. I was able to install it on my machine just now.

[Nick Cox]

I can see the package, which is familiar somehow, on SSC.

I have a more esoteric hypothesis. This is a package first posted some years ago when Stata help files had extension .hlp.

Stata changed the extension to .sthlp when some users were bitten by the fact that MS Windows had started to use .hlp as an extension too.

Expecting Microsoft to change while Stata kept going with .hlp was not realistic.

It is notable that Stata appears to have installed chitest.ado and barfed on chitest.hlp which is the next file in the package.

It may be that at your workplace there is a ban on importing .hlp files because they can carry nasty things.

As the author of the package it strikes me that if the long-term solution is to change all the help files to .sthlp that won't disadvantage anyone in practice. (People with a very old Stata could just change the extension after downloading.)

You may be able to say whether you've previously downloaded .hlp files without problem.

[Sara Kay]

Thanks for your help. It worked just now.