Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2008 06:45:28 -0700
Reply-To: Alan Churchill <savian001@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From: Alan Churchill <savian001@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: SaviDoc and Documentation Standards
In-Reply-To: <4bc14e460803032234n45091452y8f108b2c75a868b8@mail.gmail.com>
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Thanks Ajay. I appreciate the kind words.
I think an enhancement to SaviLog will be next. I will follow that up with
work on SasTidy as time permits.
Alan
Alan Churchill
Savian
www.savian.net <http://www.savian.net/>
From: ajay ohri [mailto:ohri2007@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, March 03, 2008 11:34 PM
To: Alan Churchill
Cc: SAS-L@listserv.uga.edu
Subject: Re: SaviDoc and Documentation Standards
Alan,
Savidoc is Nice and nifty . real help for my work.
Thanks a lot,
Regards,
Ajay
On Sun, Mar 2, 2008 at 10:33 PM, Alan Churchill <savian001@gmail.com> wrote:
Around 2 years ago, I created SaviDoc. This was a tool designed to improve
SAS documentation. This tool was not very useful on a general level for
multiple reasons:
. It used XML tags which were very wordy
. It created an HTML documentation that may or may not have sufficed
for a particular customer
. It did not take into account people's personal documentation
styles
I used it at a number of clients and it worked well. However, it just didn't
feel 'right'.
My wife's project needed a way to document SAS code. I said I would update
the tool to make it more flexible: I did just that.
Overview of SaviDoc 2.0:
. It is called via a command-line interface. When done using a valid
SAS program and tagset, it produces a SAS dataset that contains the details
of the code documentation. From there, a SAS programmer can create html,
latex, pdf, etc. I will probably create viewers for it but I am opening this
up to the community to help create documentation viewers for SaviDoc.
. A programmer MUST adhere to the standards outlined In the tagset.
SaviDoc does not automatically do everything: it relies on the comments
found within the code.
Features of SaviDoc 2.0:
. SaviDoc 2.0 uses regular expressions for the tags. I included
TightTags.xml as an example. If you would like something else, the tagsets
are available for modification.
. SaviDoc creates an XML file that can be easily read into a SAS
dataset. Sample code is included in the help file.
. It relies on .NET 3.5 for improved speed and ease of code
maintenance.
. It can work on any code and not just SAS
Why build it?
. Jollies: I like to do stuff other than watch TV. It is .NET
'target practice' for me.
. SAS does not have documentation standards and I think it should
. I need it for clients.
. Why not?
Rules:
SaviDoc is free. It is not available for commercial re-distribution but, if
you are a SAS developer, go for it and have fun.
Sample comment code:
Please see the included code called testprogram.sas in the
zip archive. Code snippets are also available in the help file.
Sample call:
SaviDocToXml "c:\temp\testProgram.sas" "c:\temp" "MP"
"c:\temp\TightTags.xml"
Then read the document into SAS:
libname test xml 'c:\temp\SaviDoc\MPComments.xml' ;
data test ;
set test.steps;
run;
Download:
http://saviandata.savian.net/applications/SaviDoc.zip
Final word:
I did not create this in hopes of getting everyone to use it and then
charging a dime. My work is merely 'artistic' (coding-wise). I hope people
appreciate it and use it. SaviDoc is free to the community and I hope it
gains some traction. Better documentation standards are needed and I am
trying to start the discussion.
Alan
Alan Churchill
Savian
www.savian.net <http://www.savian.net/>
Office: (719) 687-5954
Cell: (719) 310-4870
