Taking this here from the mailing list. Jack also suggested that more submenus in the "Add" menu might be good. (E.g. for time-series transformations; lags, diffs etc.)
P.S.: However, for functions like pmean() a slight complication is the fact that there does not exist a naming convention as with the transformation commands. (l_, sq_ etc.)
Therefore, another idea was to perhaps make the dialog window related to "Define new variable" more clever and easier to use.
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summary: Add menu: have sub-menus; and better "add new variable" dialog --> Add menu: have sub-menus; panel trafos; (and better "add new variable" dialog)
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updating the title again... Previously in this ticket it was seen as a problem that for some transformations like pmean() or so we do not have a naming convention for the new series. However, I just realized that the same situation already exists for example when creating percentage-changes of a series. There is a dialog there where the user must specify a name.
So it would close a gap to have some of the panel transformations (pmean, pnobs, pxsum, ...) in the "Add" menu in this way, too. Practical use case: When teaching with macro panel data, this is the only step which isn't doable through the menus so far.
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Updating the ticket title once again - because now the sub-menus feature is implemented (at least since gretl 2025b, maybe earlier)
So the only things left are stuff which was actually added to this ticket later, namely the offering of panel trafos like pmean(), and the "add new variable" dialog. (Of course it could be debatable if this is worth keeping.)
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Actually, it occurs to me that my own rudimentary "series_calculator" package could be extended in that way, partly using the GUI-maker functionality that was added to gretl in the meantime...
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P.S.: However, for functions like pmean() a slight complication is the fact that there does not exist a naming convention as with the transformation commands. (l_, sq_ etc.)
Therefore, another idea was to perhaps make the dialog window related to "Define new variable" more clever and easier to use.
Following up on the last idea above to make the "add new variable" dialog easier, some ideas:
<new_var_name> = <some_expression>This way, it would perhaps be easier to create (panel-specific) transformed variables.
... just changing the ticket title to reflect discussions....
updating the title again... Previously in this ticket it was seen as a problem that for some transformations like pmean() or so we do not have a naming convention for the new series. However, I just realized that the same situation already exists for example when creating percentage-changes of a series. There is a dialog there where the user must specify a name.
So it would close a gap to have some of the panel transformations (pmean, pnobs, pxsum, ...) in the "Add" menu in this way, too. Practical use case: When teaching with macro panel data, this is the only step which isn't doable through the menus so far.
Updating the ticket title once again - because now the sub-menus feature is implemented (at least since gretl 2025b, maybe earlier)
So the only things left are stuff which was actually added to this ticket later, namely the offering of panel trafos like pmean(), and the "add new variable" dialog. (Of course it could be debatable if this is worth keeping.)
Actually, it occurs to me that my own rudimentary "series_calculator" package could be extended in that way, partly using the GUI-maker functionality that was added to gretl in the meantime...
The new version of my little package series_calculator now offers panel transformations, and I guess that's good enough for now. So I'm closing this.