Date:         Fri, 15 Jan 2010 07:22:14 -0800
Reply-To:     Savian <savian.net@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Savian <savian.net@GMAIL.COM>
Organization: http://groups.google.com
Subject:      Re: question about "original purpose" of macros
Comments: To: sas-l@uga.edu
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

On Jan 14, 3:09 pm, jclguy <vogelman...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Somewhere along the line, I remember someone telling me that the
> original(intended) purpose of sas macros was to provide (advanced or
> sophisticated) sas code to end users. Hopefully this was not
> apocryphal.
>
> TIA.

Keep in mind also that the SAS macro language is merely a tool for
automatic code creation. Very useful but there are also other means of
generating SAS code. I have used C#, Javascript, data step, and a
great tool called CodeSmith. I even wrote a paper on how to generate
SAS in non-SAS languages. The bottom-line, and why I wrote the paper,
is that macros have to be understood for what they are. If you code
SAS in something like CodeSmith, I think it helps with the
understanding of what the macro language does and makes you a better
SAS programmer.

Alan
http://www.savian.net