>SAS/AF happens to be why we don't use EG in my office
Yes, I am with you here, and SAS/AF is sometimes the only way to write a process.
Ever tried to write a recursive routine? Macros and call execute cannot recurse very far, only SCL can.
Solid recursion would be another welcome improvement when a revamped developer toolbox comes, or array functions similar to the SCL list functions or PHP array functions (though all this is not interface-dependant).
>Your "tips" on line numbers, obtaining path names, and getting variable names via copy/paste are spot on.
There are always ways to do things. proc contents or pathname() would work too here. Is that an improvement on the right-click contextual menu to display columns properties though?
More time spent faffing around running processes, going to the result window, deleting the tabs created, just to do trivial things.
How about improvements instead, like select a few names and formats, and drag and drop them from the columns properties window to the editor? Or the "Find column name" field finds as you type rather than requiring you to know the exact entire variable name? Or that the dialog can be resized so we can see names and labels at the same time?
By this logic, I don't really *need* the viewtable window (and its where; where also; where undo; show; hide; form view; change format; options) after all, I could just use proc print to browse data, right?
Where are the increased productivity and ease-of-use in that?
I feel a sense of people having resigned themselves to (my words) and having gotten used to (yours) EG. 'Or else' in some cases as Franco puts it.
Not quite the embracement or endorsement one would like to see, even if for some positive aspects have been mentionned. Not quite the raft of new features that have been missing and requested for years either.
Different features and fewer features instead. SAS has now been pleading for years for developers to use EG, and the migration is slowly happening. They wouldn't have to plead if they provided the right tool set. The move to EG reminds me of Rumsfeld's reply "As you know, you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have."
As far as I can see, EG doesn't answer my current needs:
-help me better manage the company's macro libraries, format libraries, code libraries;
-help me debug macros, help me find the important parts of my log,
-help me write code as I type, help me find an earlier versions of a piece of code,
-help me track code changes.
EG does seem to bring some positives to some of you, but it also creates more hurdles, and I don't need more hurdles.
I don't know about you, but my code is always wrapped in macros. Macros make maintenance so easy.
Even simple things like titles use macros, as in
[pre]title2 h=%fontsize(title,&FontSizePt) [/pre]
with
[pre]%macro fontsize(usage, pt);
.....
%let __dev=%upcase(%substr(%sysfunc(getoption(device)),1,3));
%if &pt=12 %then %do;
%if &__dev=ACT %then %do;
%if &usage=TITLE %then 10pt;
%if &usage=ANNO %then 1.5;
%if &usage=AXIS %then 10pt;
%end;
%if &__dev=GIF or &__dev=PNG %then %do;
%if &usage=TITLE %then 12pt;
%if &usage=ANNO %then 1.5;
%if &usage=AXIS %then 12pt;
%end;
....[/pre]
because pt font size is not available to annotations (except via goptions), and different devices interpret the same size differently anyway. Now I can change the font size or device across all my outputs from one location, without having to worry about annotations or the chosen device. Likewise ODS destinations have their quirks. EG doesn't help me manage that kind of time-saving flexibility, does it?
I am very ready to change, don't get me wrong. I want to drop the old DMS. I want modern features like a Find dialog which finds and highlights as you type. I am ready for server-side processing with just an interface on the PC if that's the way things will go. But I don't want change for the sake of change, I want change for the (much, if possible) better.
>Many of us walked away from this year's SAS Global Forum, in Seattle, WA, with the same feeling of abandonment.
I too wonder whether sas might be overlooking its developer base. How wrong would that be. EG end-users can be retrained in a day to use another (not as powerful) reporting tool if a company decides to drop sas. It is the sas developers and the complex, flexible and fast processes they create that make sas a company's valued asset, not the reporting tool, and helping the developers should be a top priority.
Alright, enough arm waving, you got my point, so I'll stop my tirade/plea here. I hope it was somewhat constructive, in pushing my ideas for (what I see as) a better future.
I'd still be curious to know the uptake of EG among Sas Institute developers: they too use lots of macros, and they also want speedy code.