Date:         Fri, 11 Jun 2004 16:04:55 -0700
Reply-To:     cassell.david@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "David L. Cassell" <cassell.david@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV>
Subject:      Re: Infile Data from CGI Generated Web Page
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

TW Socos <bodybuilder@SCIENTIST.COM> wrote:
> Thank you for the info.  Unfortunately, the PI on the project wants it
> to be completely "SAS-based" so that other SAS programmers can
> continue to use and refine the program once my work is done.  I
> discussed PERL earlier this week and it was quickly shot down and met
> with the reply, "this should be something that can easily be done in
> SAS..."  If there is a SAS workaround, I would appreciate the
> assistance.

Does your PI, by any chance, have really pointy hair?  :-)

You can use a program like curl or tinyurl or lynx (or a short Perl
program) in an X statement (or pipe it into the SAS DATA step using
the FILENAME PIPE engine).  Then it is SAS-based.

Point out to your Pointy-Haired Boss that the alternatives are:
[1] the above; or
[2] possibly hundreds of highly-tweaked lines of SAS code to do what
these specialized programs are designed to do.

Then point out that option #2 leads to the situation where maintenance
is a diasaster, while option #1 will have minimal maintenance issues.

This is a SAS list, but SAS is not designed to do every computer-science
task in the galaxy.  SAS does some tasks extremely well.  Other programs
do some tasks better.  Use your entire toolbox, and don't let someone
force you to screws in with a nailgun.

HTH,
David
--
David Cassell, CSC
Cassell.David@epa.gov
Senior computing specialist
mathematical statistician