statacons: An SCons-based build tool for Stata

Raymond P. Guiteras, Ahnjeong Kim, Brian Quistorff and Clayson Shumway

Stata Journal, 23(1):149-196, March 2023, doi:10.1177/1536867X231162032. PDF

Final pre-publication version: CEnREP Working Paper 22-001, May 2022, https://go.ncsu.edu/cenrep-wp-22-001. PDF 

Abstract: This paper presents statacons, an SCons-based build tool for Stata. Because of the integration of Stata and Python in recent versions of Stata, we are able to adapt SCons for Stata workflows without the use of an external shell or extensive configuration. We discuss the usefulness of build tools generally, provide examples of the use of statacons in Stata workflows, present key elements of the syntax of statacons, and discuss extensions, alternatives, and limitations. Appendices provide installation instructions and recommendations for collaborative workflows. 

Preferred citation: Guiteras, Raymond, Ahnjeong Kim, Brian Quistorff and Clayson Shumway, "statacons: An SCons-based build tool for Stata," The Stata Journal, 23(1):149-196, March 2023, doi:10.1177/1536867X231162032.

Resources

The Project Web Page at https://bquistorff.github.io/statacons/index.html hosts or links to all statacons resources, including:

• The Installation Guide: https://bquistorff.github.io/statacons/installation.html.

• A web tutorial based on Software Carpentry's make lesson: https://bquistorff.github.io/statacons/swc.html

• The project repository,  github.com/bquistorff/statacons, which includes

  • a Wiki Page with additional advanced features (user contributions welcome): https://github.com/bquistorff/statacons/wiki

  • The issues page, where users can file bug reports (issues):  github.com/bquistorff/statacons/issues 

• Documentation for statacons, stataconsign, and pystatacons

• The MetaArXiV site hosting drafts of the paper: https://osf.io/preprints/metaarxiv/qesx6/.

• The OSF site archiving all versions of the software and replication code and data: https://osf.io/gbh4m/

Installation

See the Installation Guide: https://bquistorff.github.io/statacons/installation.html.