Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2006 19:03:56 -0600
Reply-To: "Barz, Ken" <Ken.Barz@INTRADO.COM>
Sender: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From: "Barz, Ken" <Ken.Barz@INTRADO.COM>
Subject: Re: Is there life beyond SAS?
In-Reply-To: A<c2192a610609222043j6f70e398r77674071193a7b0f@mail.gmail.com>
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I guess that's always part of the question: MS or LAMP? Either way,
once you start, just the sheer volume can be intimidating. Any more you
need a general language (VB, C#, Java, ...), SQL + a database (which
people get whole degrees in the subject, whichever OS, web technology
and scripting, the whole X technologies (XML, XSL,...) and on and on and
on.
Add to that the fact that SAS programmers (as contrasted with the
statisticians and analysts), while they can be quite gifted as
programmers typically do not come from a software engineering
background. And guess who, in a lot of cases, the competition is?
So, you could almost pick any road that's interesting, but then plan on
a learning curve for quite a while.
-----Original Message-----
From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
SAS_learner
Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 9:44 PM
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Is there life beyond SAS?
Any road map Alan,
I know this is too broad but I am thinking this way ,
as a (base) SAS programmer we do lot of data step programming using sql
statements,
is it easy to go towards database if so what skill to pick up (eg:
PL/SQL )
is it towards to web based or Microsoft programming using C# and .net
technologies
or it is towards the ERP technologies ( As I hear that SAP is billing is
close to $200/hr ) ,
or pick up a reporting tool ( as SAS is known as reporting tool by some
of
the IT guys ) like cognas ,
There are all different kinds of people here working on different
technologies. I know there was thread that was discussing similar topic
"what next .." ......... but most of the people came up with a opinion
that
if we can see what would be hot in the market in future they will be
rich .
I would like to know from the gurus what would be road map to pick up
new
skills in different directions .
On 9/22/06, Alan Churchill <SASL001@savian.net> wrote:
>
> SAS programmers need to invest the time and effort to learn non-SAS
> languages IMO. This is a case where the sum is greater than the parts.
I
> can
> tell you that it is hard but it is definitely worth it.
>
> Alan
>
> Alan Churchill
> Savian "Bridging SAS and Microsoft Technologies"t
> www.savian.net
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
> Martin
> Mathis
> Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 6:23 PM
> To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Is there life beyond SAS?
>
> Just for philosophical purposes, I find a variation of the question
> interesting too: Is there life after SAS?
>
> Meaning, where can a SAS programmer (of the data processing kind, not
> science/stats) go, should he ever want to get away from SAS or wants
to
> work
> in an industry/environment that commonly does not have a need for SAS
or
> can
> not afford SAS?
>
> Sure, I have other programming experience - a lot self-taught w/o a
formal
> degree - most of which is either from too long ago or doesn't
constitute a
> full-time skill to qualify for employment (especially with roughly
> equivalent pay), or then "does not count" as the experience is "only"
from
> freelance/hobby.
>
> I thought a few times that once you have that "SAS stamp" imprinted on
> your
> forehead, it's very hard to be seen as anything else.
> Also not too easy to switch to the mindset of more engineering/design-
> oriented languages (e.g. C flavors or object-oriented).
>
> I guess my 2 cents are, SAS seems enough of a niche skill that non-SAS
> employers tend to not give you credit for ("can't use you").
>
> On Fri, 22 Sep 2006 18:02:17 -0400, Peter Constantinidis
> <peter@CONSTANTINIDIS.CA> wrote:
>
> >All this is interesting because the licenses are really quite
> >expensive. Mine was $4500 cdn for a year I believe. So keep
multiplying
> >that by a # of people and it becomes a vast sum. Much like a previous
> >job I worked at when the VP of Tech decided Blackberries were too
> >expensive back when they were new to the market, thus creating a sad
> >funereal pile of 17+ BB's on his desk.
> >
> >Anyways, analyzing what I personally use SAS for, I primarily use
only
> >the proc freq, and report/print functions along with your usual
garden
> >variety data step manipulations. I don't actually use it for
> >statistical analysis as I'm not in science. I use SAS because that's
> >what my boss uses and I didn't arrive with any prior preferences. My
> >coworker uses R&R reports to do the same job that I use SAS for (and
> >his reports look nicer). A previous coworker used MS Access. As a
> >comparison, R&R is $500. I forget if that's to buy, or a license fee.
> >So, $4000 cheaper right there.
> >
> >I have often thought that the data step functions could be easily
> >substituted with any dynamic scripting language like Ruby or LISP,
and
> >it should be fairly straightforward to clone all of Base SAS as a
hobby
> >by writing libraries to duplicate procedures like proc freq etc.
> >if one cared to do so enough.
> >
> >This would depend on the job you are in. If you're in science, it
would
> >be very hard to stop using SAS due to the vast library of functions.
> >But all my job is, is to produce HR related reports using data that
> >mostly came out of Peoplesoft. It didn't *have* to be SAS that was
> >used. It could have been anything, as long as someone wrote the right
> >library to use.
> >
> >That's my 2 cents.
>
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