Date:         Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:23:11 -0400
Reply-To:     Michael Raithel <michaelraithel@WESTAT.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Michael Raithel <michaelraithel@WESTAT.COM>
Subject:      Re: SAS AF application is not supported in SAS EG?
In-Reply-To:  <49D70B07-F399-436F-BC22-D52083553961@alumni.stanford.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Dear SAS-L-ers,

Jack Hamilton posted the following:

>
> There's a lot of fun in writing web front ends to SAS, and you can
> even use the knowledge for something else later.
>
> We used SAS/Intrnet (application broker and htmSQL) a lot at First
> Health, and I really liked the flexibility and power that JavaScript
> gives you.
>
Jack; I couldn't agree you more!  In the past, I thoroughly enjoyed creating SAS/IntrNet web applications because it stretched my programming knowledge from the SAS World into the (then) modern world of HTML and JavaScript.  It was fun, hip-happening, and very rewarding to see data that was crunched server-side appear as tables, reports, and graphs in a web browser.  (Unfortunately, my choice of color schemes for the web pages was always unduly criticized and they went with somebody else's "more professional" colors--but, that is another story). :-(

We have couple dozen production SAS/IntrNet web apps here at SAS Mecca.  Consequently, I have noticed two phenomena.  First, some SAS programmers have felt that their "programming careers" have been rejuvenated because they get to do web work in addition to SAS programming. So, they learn a new skill set that widens their overall programming acumen.

Secondly, we can split out the work on large projects between web developers and SAS programmers.  The web developers do what they do best in designing, testing, and implementing the web pages and the SAS programmers do what they do best in creating macro-tized programs that munch and crunch data; returning the relevant result sets.  The two groups intersect efforts at the junction of which "secret" information the web page needs to send to SAS/IntrNet.  Everybody is happy in their respective roles and good products result.

So, SAS/IntrNet can be a blast to work with and an asset to an organization's web presence.

Jack, best of luck in all of your SAS endeavors!


I hope that this suggestion proves helpful now, and in the future!

Of course, all of these opinions and insights are my own, and do not reflect those of my organization or my associates. All SAS code and/or methodologies specified in this posting are for illustrative purposes only and no warranty is stated or implied as to their accuracy or applicability. People deciding to use information in this posting do so at their own risk.

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Michael A. Raithel
"The man who wrote the book on performance"
E-mail: MichaelRaithel@westat.com

Author: Tuning SAS Applications in the MVS Environment

Author: Tuning SAS Applications in the OS/390 and z/OS Environments, Second Edition
http://www.sas.com/apps/pubscat/bookdetails.jsp?catid=1&pc=58172

Author: The Complete Guide to SAS Indexes
http://www.sas.com/apps/pubscat/bookdetails.jsp?catid=1&pc=60409

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All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go
and holding on. - Henry Ellis
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