Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 11:43:32 -0700
Reply-To: Jack Hamilton <JackHamilton@FIRSTHEALTH.COM>
Sender: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From: Jack Hamilton <JackHamilton@FIRSTHEALTH.COM>
Subject: Re: Question: How does one move from SAS to Java?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>I am sorry to report that, at the forum, the SI developers
>were not very enthusiastic about SAS/AF, though.
Of course not! If they're developers, they're interested in the latest
and greatest, not in yesterday's news. Unfortunately, at SAS they're
becoming less interested in backwards compatibility.
>Still, they told us that AF and SCL
>will continue to be supported.
They'd better, I guess, or they'd have a lot of unhappy customers. I
suspect that some non-trivial number of sites would swtich away from SAS
for interactive development if they had to recode all their existing
apps.
>One developer also mentioned that it is the
>case that when they add a new function to the data step, it is
>automatically (or with little work) added to SCL, too.)
I wish it were also true the other way around.
--
JackHamilton@FirstHealth.com
Manager, Technical Development
Metrics Department, First Health
West Sacramento, California USA
>>> owner-sas-l@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 11/22/2004 7:16 AM >>>
On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 20:53:01 -0500, Christopher Amherst
<camherst@MISER.UMASS.EDU> wrote:
>Quoting "David L. Cassell" <cassell.david@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV>:
>
>> Sure. Program in SAS. You can then write Java code and integrate
>> it into your SAS code. (Take a look at Richard Devenezia's website
>> to see some examples.) Now you can count your time as:
>> [1] SAS programmer
>> [2] Java developer
>> [3] AND systems integrator.
>
>It's likely the only option I have, other than jumping ship entirely.
>Just wish there was a better sense of projects that integration is
better
>suited for.
Hi,
Seriously, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense to
follow
David's advice - be patient and stay employed as a SAS programmer and
learn java, and then apply your java skills whenever it makes sense to
use
java.
I can give you at least several places where I saw java working very
nicely with SAS now (in 9.1) or very soon (in 9.2).
At the NESUG2004 futures forum (which was two days ago), I heard that
the
data step java object (and using user-defined functions written in
proc
fcmp in a data step) will be in production soon (in 9.2). Wait and see
what kinds of original idea comes out of the amazing people at sas-l
using
this route of integrating SAS and java.
I've also seen WebAF - which is strongly promoted by SI -- is all java
and
nothing but java (OK. java and SAS). The possibility for getting both
the
java and sas experience is limitless here.
(I am sorry to report that, at the forum, the SI developers were not
very
enthusiastic about SAS/AF, though. Still, they told us that AF and SCL
will continue to be supported. One developer also mentioned that it is
the
case that when they add a new function to the data step, it is
automatically (or with little work) added to SCL, too.)
SI is also into "solutions" business now a days. I attended one session
at
NESUG2004, where a "solution" was demonstrated. Behind the pretty
graphs
and menus, I realized that a "solution" consists of nothing but (1)
sas
macros that calls various existing sas products or modules for heavy
lifting; (2) an xml file, which documents the parameters for those
macros;
(3) and a pretty user interface written in java that takes parameter
values from user and pass them on to macros and run them. (on the form
the
meta information stored in xml document is used as field labels and
the
like).
Here I see a lot of opportunities -- this can be done by anybody who
knows
sas and java -- and also a substantive knowledge and skills in some
topic
area that your "solution" would be useful. Think of something that you
know how to do with sas -- write parameterized macros -- wrap your
macros
with a java/swing or other nice user-interface. Voila -- you have
a "solution" package to sell. Don't you have enough motivation to
learn
both sas and java yet?
As far as I can see, si is really committed to java and there is no way
of
turnning back. SAS and Java will be more and more closely integrated
and
there will be ample chance to utilize both SAS and Java codes. In this
regard, the fact that they are so different *is* the blessing in
disguise.
Unless they are so different, integration would mean little.
HTH.
Cheers,
Chang
"MMS <firsthealth.com>" made the following annotations.
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