Date:         Mon, 10 Jul 2000 13:47:17 "GMT"
Reply-To:     "David L. Ward" <dward@SASHELP.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "David L. Ward" <dward@SASHELP.COM>
Subject:      Re: SAS and Perl
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

In my estimation, SI knows full well that SAS/Intrnet or SAS/Whatever is not necessarily always the best tool to get a job done.  If a simple query can be performed with minimal programming and will run 20 times faster and with 20 times less memory and CPU consumption (I made those numbers up) under Perl, it seems smarter to use Perl.  On the other hand, complex data manipulation and presentation (could) be a chore with Perl (I say could to possibly avoid rants on how great Perl and Perl modules are).  In short, SAS is a wonderful tool, but not for everything.  As a developer using both, I think it wise for the two to develop a friendship under your supervision.


David Ward
SASHelp.com (soon to be Libname.com due to SI)

-----Original Message-----
From:    Scott Chapal <schapal@MAIL.JONESCTR.ORG>
Sent:    7/9/00 6:14:43 PM
Subject: SAS and Perl

> After searching through the archives for "Perl" I discovered several
>posts discussing Perl vs. SAS, and the idea that Perl "and" SAS should
>coexist because they both have their strengths.  Also, whether or not
>Perl is good for your career.
>
>It might be illustrative to note what SI uses Perl for.  For
>example while submitting a Tech Support request through the web
>interface on www.sas.com I took the opportunity to "View Source"
>like I usually do when I'm curious about form processing.
>And what do you know?  Perl.  Unless jump.pl is just a funny name
>for a SAS program?  :-o
>
>Golly, with all that marketing of IntrNet and such, why do you
>suppose SAS itself is using Perl for such a thing?
>
>______________________________________________________________________
> <TD height="27" valign="middle" align="left" nowrap> <B>
>      <A href="/SASHome.html"><FONT color="#FFFFFF" size="2"><SPAN
>class="topnav">www.sas.com</SPAN></FONT>
></A>
>
>      <FONT color="#FFFFFF" size="2">></FONT>
>      <A href="/service/index.html"><FONT color="#FFFFFF" size="2"><SPAN
>class="topnav">Service and Support</SPAN></FONT>
></A>
>      <FONT color="#FFFFFF" size="2">></FONT>
>      <A href="/service/techsup/intro.html"><FONT color="#FFFFFF"
>size="2"><SPAN class="topnav">Technical Support</SPAN></FONT>
></A>
>      </B></TD>
>
><FORM action="/bin/jump.pl" method="get">
>    <TD height="27" valign="middle" align="right" nowrap>
>        <SELECT name="jump_list" onChange="if
>(options[selectedIndex].value)
>   window.location.href=(options[selectedIndex].value)">
>______________________________________________________________________
>
>Or, here is an even better one.  Have you ever taken a look at the
>venerable "sassetup" script on your UNIX version of SAS?
>
>%1 more sassetup
>
>eval 'exec `dirname $0`/install/perl/bin/perl5 -U $0 ${1+"$@"}'
>        if $running_under_some_shell;
>#----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>#  Copyright (c) 1999, SAS Institute Inc., Cary, N.C., USA
>#  All rights reserved.
>#----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>##--------------------------------------------------------------
>##
>## NAME:      sassetup
>## DATE:      4/98
>## PURPOSE:   install program for version 8 of SAS for Unix
>## NOTES:     This is the mail top level file for the install
>##            program.  The top line invokes perl--it is the only
>##            place where perl is specifially called.  The other
>##            files are included in below.
>##
>##--------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Well, thank you Larry Wall.  All of the Perl install modules are in
>SASROOT/install, oh and just to be sure, perl itself is put in
>SASROOT/install/perl.
>
>Just thought you'd like to know.
>
>BTW, what was missing in most of the posts I read discussing Perl
>vs. SAS is the immutable fact that Perl is open source.  The
>inevitability of open source software domination, and the critical
>necessity for open data formats, is why Perl is inherently
>interesting.  Not to mention that it's a darned amazing language.
>
>--
>Scott E. Chapal
>

_____________________________________________________
Sent by SASHelp.com user David L. Ward
SASHelp.com - On-Line SAS Resources
Web interface to SAS-L at http://www.sashelp.com/sasl