read lxthreg.milb file

[River Huang]

Dear All, I have installed the -xthreg- package (search xthreg and install) and would like to see what the "lxthreg.milb" (one of the files) looks like (its content). What kind of editor can do that? Thanks.

[William Lisowski]

Unfortunately, it is not possible to reconstruct the source code for the compiled routines distributed in a Mata library (.mlib file).

Anticipating a comment you are likely to make on learning this, a comment I made when I learned it, I agree. For user-contributed code, this represents a departure from the Stata's historical "openness" allowing users to modify published programs to better meet their needs - or to read it and confirm that it does what you expect - or to read it and learn from it. I rather wish Stata Journal and SSC required contributions of packages making use of Mata libraries to include the Mata source code. I'm new to Stata since the introduction of Mata, so I assume there is a good reason for "closed" code.

(he now dismounts his soapbox)

[River Huang]

Dear William, Thanks for your reply.

[wbuchanan]

There are no decompilers available and suspect it may not be something that would be available ever. One reason is that StataCorp develops a lot of routines in Mata that are intended to be closed source. That said, have you attempted to contact the author of the program to ask if they would share the code with you?

[River Huang]

Dear Wbuchanan, I see, and thank you for this suggestion.

[sedki zn]

Dear Huang
please i need your help about the means of threshold variables ;
xtreg i q1 q2 q3 d1 qd1, rx(c1) qx(d1)
c1 and d1 especially