Date:         Mon, 24 Nov 2003 17:08:20 -0500
Reply-To:     Howard Schreier <Howard_Schreier@ITA.DOC.GOV>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Howard Schreier <Howard_Schreier@ITA.DOC.GOV>
Subject:      Re: SYLK
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

Those of us who had posted in this thread received an interesting
birdie-gram. I'm not sure I understand it all, so I'll just paraphrase
parts. Comments expressed below in the first person are mine, not the
birdie's.

SYLK does not share a lot of underpinnings with the DATA step. It
actually has more in common with some other procedures (such as NLIN,
NLP, MODEL) which have programming languages embedded within them.

Also, SYLK and the DATA step are developed by different departments at
SAS. Budgeting for development tends to favor products which can be
marketed as "solutions". The DATA step is at a disadvantage here.

There is underway development of a "new" DATA step. It's not clear to
me whether it will be launched with a new identity, or whether it will
be a backward-compatible replacement for the current DATA step. In
either case, it's another factor working against enhancements for the
current DATA step.

But to me, the hash object and the "dot" syntax
(http://support.sas.com/rnd/base/topics/datastep/dot/dotaa.html) seem
like major enhancements. I suppose they may be parts of the "new" DATA
step just bolted onto the old.

SAS functions are generally implemented once for all environments. V.
9.2 will probably include a set of financial function corresponding to
those in Excel (but meeting SAS standards for accuracy and quality).