Enterprise Guide Editor - features missing compared to Base SAS 9.4 Editor

[bnawrocki]

Trying to migrate completely from Base SAS 9.4 to Enterprise Guide (EG) .3, but EG's editor can't seem to do some things I got used to in Base SAS 9.4's editor. And there are some weird issues. For example:

1) When you highlight a word in EG editor, which might happen in a text search, ALL the text in editor becomes green - which makes it difficult to determine if the text you are searching for is within a commented-out section or not. Seems like a bug.

2) Many times I want to check number of observations in a dataset without writing SAS code. I can easily do this in Base SAS 9.4 (in Explorer window click Libraries, navigate to dataset, right-click, choose Properties, view Number of Rows). I cannot do that in EG - if I right-click a dataset name within the Servers pane, then choose Properties, I don't see Number of Rows.

3) When I open Properties box for a dataset in EG, that pop-up box prevents me from changing focus to another window - such as the editor window. That is, I cannot type any SAS code in editor without closing Properties pop-up box.

Is there a place I can send "wish-list" items to EG development team?

[SASKiwi]

You can add your wish-list to the SASware Ballot here: SASware Ballot Ideas - SAS Support Communities

BTW, there are also many things you can do in EG that you can't do or have the Base SAS 9.4 Editor, like multiple screen support, SAS log summary, connect directly to remote SAS servers and so on.

[AlanC]

My favorites in EG are code formatting and intellisense. I still like DMS too. DMS is more bare metal and direct. 

[jebjur]

1) I am not able to replicate what you are seeing in the Enterprise Guide program editor when you say ALL text becomes green when you highlight a word, but perhaps if you go to Program - Editor Options, and disable the Smart Highlighting feature on the General tab, that might help the issue:

If you still think this issue is a bug, then please open a track with SAS Technical Support.

2) Right-clicking a SAS data set in a library from the Server list and selecting properties will not show the number of observations, but if you add the data set to a process flow first, then right-click it and select properties, you can see the number of obs:

3) yes, you will need to close the Properties window before you can go to another window such as the Editor.

[Patrick]

@bnawrocki

Just thinking: If you really only now start using SAS EG then may-be you should consider using SAS Studio instead because starting with Viya 4 EG is no more a supported client.

https://communities.sas.com/t5/Ask-the-Expert/Is-SAS-Studio-Replacing-SAS-Enterprise-Guide-Q-amp-A-S... 

[Quentin]

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@Patrick wrote:

@bnawrocki

Just thinking: If you really only now start using SAS EG then may-be you should consider using SAS Studio instead because starting with Viya 4 EG is no more a supported client.

https://communities.sas.com/t5/Ask-the-Expert/Is-SAS-Studio-Replacing-SAS-Enterprise-Guide-Q-amp-A-S... 

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Agree, I've been using EG as a programming IDE for many years and enjoy it (still use Display Manager and enjoy that too. : )  

But I wouldn't start with EG now since I don't think they'll be doing much (any?) development for it.  I'd go straight to Studio.  It works with both Viya and SAS 9.

[SASKiwi]

I still think EG has a place if you are on older maintenance releases of SAS 9.4. SAS Studio wasn't that great back then, so EG is a far better choice. It's great you can use the latest EG with all SAS 9.4 maintenance releases going back over 8 years, but with SAS Studio you are tied to the version available in that release.

[Quentin]

That's helpful, @SASKiwi .  I haven't used Studio; I didn't realize the Studio version is coupled to the SAS version.

[AlanC]

While Studio is nice, it isn't as fast on startup and isn't as responsive. That was my take. I had a client where everyone had Studio and EG and the analysts all left Studio due to speed issues. They stuck with EG.

I am unsure on Viya adoption. If a client is staying with SAS 9.4, w/o Viya, EG works fine. In many cases, where EG doesn't do everything, you can build a custom EG Add-In and fill in the gaps. I have built numerous EG Add-Ins and they work fine. You can't do everything but they can help close gaps.