This guide is a step by step list of instructions for completing the various tasks you will have to accomplish for your assignments and your final project.
I strongly suggest that you read over this entire guide before attempting to begin your first assignment. There are several small tricks to using the Macs. This guide attempts to cover most of the problems that you are likely to encounter. Thus, it is to you benefit to read the guide completely before beginning.
A few words about the disk you need and the Mac environment.
You will need a disk for BUEC 333.
This disk can be either an IBM or Mac disk
The disk CAN NOT have a space in its name! "BUEC 333" will not work, because there is a space between "BUEC" and "333." Shazam, the econometric computer program you will use, can not read files that have a space in their name. Shazam was originally created for IBM and UNIX machines. These machines do not allow spaces in the names of disks or files. When Shazam was rewritten for the Mac, the programmers failed to take account of the extra file name versatility allowed in the Mac Operating System.
None of the datafiles or command files that you create can have spaces in their names for the same reason.
You will find it convenient to use several programs at once. As with Windows 3.1 and 95, you must click on the program icon to start each program.
Once you start a program, it will not always be obvious that the program is actually running. Some of the programs do not have windows. Specifically, SimpleText and DropText, can both run without a window. To restart these programs, you will need to know how to use the Mac program menu system. The Menu Bar is the small gray band at the very top of the screen. In the top right hand corner on the Menu Bar, there is a small icon that is associated with the program window that is currently open. If you hold the mouse button down on this icon, a list will appear showing you all the programs currently running. To switch into the program of your choice, you simply highlight the appropriate name. How do you know that the program has started to run, or is now active? You can tell by looking at the icon in the right corner of the Menu Bar, or by looking at the menu options. They will change as the active program changes.
The Macs crash with alarming frequency. They crash for one of two reasons:
If the computer freezes, the only solution is to turn in off, give it a few seconds, and then start again.
If Shazam freezes, close it, reopen it and try again. If it happens a second time, check over all you command files, etc.
The netscape icon is at bottom left hand corner of the desk-top.
You will need to log into Netscape. Use your UNIX ID.
Some people have trouble logging into Netscape on the Mac's. To log in, you must enter in your UNIX id and your Password. To get to the lower box, either use tab, or your mouse.
DO NOT PRESS RETURN AFTER YOU HAVE ENTERED YOUR UNIX ID WITHOUT ENTERING A PASSWORD. This will submit your request without your password, and thus your request will inevitably be rejected. You must first enter your password.
To bring up Dr. Make's homepage, go up to the file menu, and select open location. Dr. Make's homepage address is:
Http://www.sfu.ca/~Maki.
Once in his homepage, click on the link to BUEC 333 and look for the a link to:
real estate sales.data
After clicking on this link, your page will be filled with seven columns of numbers.
An option box will then appear on the screen. Select your disk from the desk-top and save the file.
The default file name will work. The Default file name is:
real_estate_sales.data
real_estate_sales.data.header
This file contains information on each of the variables in the data set. Without the header, you will not be able to work out which column is associated with which variable.
Once you have downloaded the data, you can view it by clicking on the file name real_estate_sales.data in your disk's directory. The Mac will automatically start an Editor Program called SimpleText.
Your Datafile will then appear in SimpleText. You will notice that the data is no longer in nice neat columns. Instead, t looks like a real mess. Do not worry. The main data is still there. However, there are also a bunch of formatting instructions embedded in the data. These formatting instructions were put there to allow Netscape to understand and present the data.
In order to use the data in the econometrics program Shazam, you must first clean these formatting instructions out of the Datafile.
To do this, you will need to use a program called DropText.
To open DropText, first open HD163, which is located in the top right hand corner of the DeskTop. Then, open the File Folder called Applications. Then click on DropText.
Note that DropText does not have a window associated with it. Instead, only the MenuBar changes.
Select the option OPENFILE from the FILE menu.
An option box will appear. Choose your disk from the DeskTop and then select the Datafile.
Then, click on the OPEN AND CONVERT button.
A box will quickly flash up on the screen saying "Converting File".
Your data has now been converted.
To Check that your data has been converted, open up SimpleText and re-open the Datafile.
You will see that the data now appears in 7 neat columns.
Before you continue, you must close this file. Shazam will not be able to access the Datafile if it is already open in SimpleText.
Shazam is an econometrics computer program. Shazam is designed to help you analyze data. Shazam will not do all the work for you. Instead, you should think of it as a glorified calculator.
In order to get full marks on your assignments and your project, you must show that you understand the Shazam output. Thus, you must explain what each statistic and estimated variable mean. Some questions will ask you do tests on the results of your regressions. In these cases, you must perform the required tests, or interpret the test results included in the Shazam output.
Your TAs will not be interested in seeing pages of Shazam output without explanation. Thus, you should edit your Shazam output, and delete everything you do not understand.
For your assignments, you should never have to hand in more than one page of output.
There are two ways to get Shazam to perform analysis.
The First method is to type commands directly into the Shazam window. This method is fraught with many problems. Each time you time a command, Shazam instantly executes that command. If you have made a mistake, Shazam does not allow you to go back and edit this command. Instead, you must close Shazam, re-open it and begin again. Thus, I strongly suggest that you do not use this method.
The Second method is to use a Command File. Instead of typing the commands directly into the Shazam, you enter them into a text file. When you run Shazam, instead of typing in commands, you simply ask it to run the command file. If there is a problem, you re-open the command file, adjust the line that contains the problem, then re-run the command file. What you do not have to do it re-type all the commands in again. You will find that this method will save you a tremendous amount of time. In addition, it will make it easier for you to go to your TA or the Lab TA for help.
SimpleText is a text editor. A text editor is a very basic version of a word processor.
To open SimpleText, first open HD163, which is located in the top right hand corner of the DeskTop. Then, open the File Folder called Applications. Then click on SimpleText.
If SimpleText is already running, only the MenuBar will change and no window will appear, and you will have to click on File and then New to get an open window. Otherwise, a window entitled "Untitled" will appear.
Once in SimpleText, you just type in the commands. The command for your first assignment are as follows:
SAMPLE 1 81
READ (your-disk-name:real_estate_sales.data) ask sell x1 x2 x3 x4 x5
STAT sell ask
** End of File **
Pay very close attention to where I have inserted spaces, colons, brackets, etc.
The first command, SAMPLE 1 81, tells Shazam that you want to deal with a file that it 81 observations long. 1 is the beginning observation and 81 is the end observation.
The second command, READ, reads in the data from the Datafile on your disk. You must specify both the name of your disk and the name of the data file, and you must include the colon between both of these names. Note that you can not use the "Student Folder" because there is a space between the two words. You must also read in all seven variables, even if you do not intend them to you them.
The third command, STAT, returns basic statistical information on each of the variables specified.
The final line is an example of a comment. You must include a last line to make sure that Shazam executes the command before the final line. In this case, if you do not include the comment, Shazam on the Macs will occasionally fail to execute the STAT command.
Once you have typed in the commands, save the command file by selecting Save from the File menu.
Make sure that you do not include a space in the name of your command file and that you save it to your disk and not to the "student folder."
Open SFU_WWF.MAC, which is located just below HD163. Shazam is located in the Shazam.PowerMac folder.
Once Shazam in running, select INPUT FILE from the Shazam menu.
A dialog box will appear. From the DeskTop, select your disk and then choose the command file you have just created. Click on OK and Shazam will run the command file.
The screen will start to fill with the output.
If you have done everything correctly, be similar to this:
Hello/Bonjour/Aloha/Howdy/G Day/Kia Ora/Konnichiwa/Buenos Dias/Nee Hau
Welcome to SHAZAM - Version 7.0 - JUL 1995 SYSTEM=IRIX PAR= 312
|_SAMPLE 1 81
|_READ (333-real.txt) ask sell x1 x2 x3 x4 x5
UNIT 88 IS NOW ASSIGNED TO: 333-real.txt
7 VARIABLES AND 81 OBSERVATIONS STARTING AT OBS 1
|_STAT sell ask
NAME N MEAN ST. DEV VARIANCE MINIMUM MAXIMUM
SELL 81 51939. 15767. 0.24858E+09 25000. 95000.
ASK 81 56112. 16322. 0.26641E+09 25900. 99900.
|_** End of File **
NOTE THAT BECAUSE THIS IS ON THE WEB, YOUR OUTPUT WILL LOOK QUITE DIFFERENT.
You can either print this output directly or save it to a file.