Hi,
I've hit an issue with the .ext file generated by NM7.1.2. It appears that if
the estimation fails (message below), the .ext file doesn't get the header with
the parameter values:
Estimation failure message:
0PROGRAM TERMINATED BY OBJ
ERROR IN OBJ2 WITH INDIVIDUAL 1 ID= 1.00000000000000E+00
CONDITIONAL CONTRIBUTION OR IT'S DERIVATIVE IS INFINITE
MESSAGE ISSUED FROM ESTIMATION STEP
AT INITIAL OBJ. FUNCTION EVALUATION
Elapsed estimation time in seconds: 0.03
#TERM:
#TERE:
.ext file contents:
-1000000000 7.77542E+01 6.38155E-01 1.00000E-01 2.23246E+00 1.00000E+00
1.00000E-02 1.34078079299425971E+154
It would be helpful to at minimum give the header and preferably give
estimation failure a new iteration # so that the file would look like:
TABLE NO. 1: First Order Conditional Estimation with Interaction: Goal
Function=MINIMUM VALUE OF OBJECTIVE FUNCTION
ITERATION THETA1 THETA2 THETA3 THETA4 SIGMA(1,1)
OMEGA(1,1) OBJ
-1000001001 7.77542E+01 6.38155E-01 1.00000E-01 2.23246E+00 1.00000E+00
1.00000E-02 1.34078079299425971E+154
That would make it easier to detect estimation failure-perhaps different
reasons for estimation failure could be given different values within a range.
E.g.:
* -1000001000 - Other estimation failure
* -1000001001 - PROGRAM TERMINATED BY OBJ
* -1000001002 - ...
That way detection of automatic errors could be found by searching for
iteration numbers between -1000001000 and -1000002000, and more sophisticated
programs could handle some or all reasons for termination differently.
Thanks,
Bill