Tom, I could not disagree with you more. In SAS/AF, you are forced to learn a new programming language (SCL) which cannot be used for any other application. In fact, SCL uses programming concepts very similar to JAVA, and other object orientated languages that .NET uses. If you are going to learn SCL, why not learn vb.net or cs.net? All you are doing with .NET is wrapping your normal SAS code up into user friendly windows, whilst also allowing you access to other objects SAS EG uses to provide a rich and more powerful environment that SAS/AF. And perhaps you dont realise that .NET in fact does interact with users and data using the same SAS function that you use in your data steps and macros - the .NET programming bit is for displaying the GUI and accessing other objects, which is exactly what SAS/AF does. So the fact that EG is not actually being run as part of the SAS system gives you the best of both words. You leverage the statistical analytics of SAS, and use .NET, which is a powerful, transferable and ever evolving platform to access these SAS methods. Why would companies continue to invest in SAS/AF when they could hire a .NET developer (easy to find), to work with their SAS programmers to develop custom made applications that blow out of the water anything that SAS/AF can and will ever possibly be able to do? Nick ... View more

Hi again, You can still use macros in SAS EG, and I often use EG to do the heavy lifting so as to produce code templates that I can then modify into macros. Also, I think that if possible, people should seriously think of migrating away from AF, and into .NET development. It is becoming easier for people to extend their skillset into .NET with the code templates and Visual Studio Express being such an easy development environment. Once you move into .NET, you can do just about everything, and SAS EG integrates nicely. I am one that recommends that SAS focus their efforts into SAS EG, and .NET integration, and away from legacy products that have long passed their used by date. Nick ... View more

Sorry Chris, It is hard to take your criticisms seriously when you consider what you describe a 'complex' program, and when you abstract your program into the steps you have, and not say that you can't modularize it. I hope your program is seperated into seperate SAS files, otherwise, go back to programming 101. Do yourself a favour - learn how to use SAS EG, create a process flow for each of the steps in your program, and, within each process flow, build up your program using tasks or your own code, create an ordered list to run the program, and then see how easy it is to debug. You will find that being able to see your datafiles created for each step easy to keep track of, that the individual log windows for each step allows you to isolate errors, and if you ever have to go back to it in the future, how the visual representation of your program makes understanding it easier. And, if you know any .NET programming, create your own custom tasks, and see how user friendly your programs can become for others. It is precisely for serious programming, that users should adopt EG. Nick ... View more

Hi, I am a programmer, both SAS programmer and other high level computer languages. I love SAS EG. I have a two screen set up, and this is a very efficient set up to make the most out of SAS EG. It sounds like you have picked out all the negatives of SAS EG, but since moving over (voluntarily), I have never looked back. Sure, it is buggy, it has shortcomings, but the improvement coming up for coders in SAS EG 4.3 look great. I work in a business environment where not everyone is experienced at using SAS. I have to work in the same environment as end users to make it easy to accomodate their needs rather than mine. As programmers, we have to stop living inside our high horse shell. You have to put it in context - name me another statistical package that offers the features, flexibility and customisation (e.g. custom tasks) that SAS EG offers? And I am not sure why you are writing 1000 to 2000 line SAS programs? Sounds like you should be modulating your code a bit better - which is what EG encourages. NIck ... View more

Hi, Any other goodies for development of custom task? Nick ... View more

Hi again, Just to let you know that I am still having issues with this problem, and that I have identified that this problem exists regardless of whether I work on a remote library, or even when I have not logged in to a remote session. I have reinstalled EG, installed the latest hot fixes, and another user has identified similar problems. I am having SAS support deal with this problem, but have not had much success. I was wondering if anyone else out there has experienced similar issues i.e. that the results for tasks fails to display during a project? Thanks, Nick ... View more

Hi, After some testing, it seems that this problem occurs only after we log into a remote server using the custom task. The custom task creates references to the remote server libraries and datasets. Typically, if we import the dataset to the local work directory and just run tasks on these datasets everything works fine. If we then run a task on a remote datasets, the task works the first time, but then, all output is no longer visible, even if tasks are also applied to the local dataset. Any suggestions as to why this is happening? Thanks. ... View more

Hi Chris, I do have a custom task within the project - which is to logon to a remote server. I am pretty sure that the problem occurs even if I have not used this task at some stage during the project, although I will look at this more closely next time the problem occurs. But, if I am to understand, do you feel that having this custom task within the project may be the cause of this project? If so, any suggestions for a fix? Thanks. ... View more

Hi, Just to clarify that when this happens, it is not possible to view the output using the right click. Thanks ... View more

Hi again, I am having fun with developing custom tasks, and would like to utilise as much functionality as possible. I was wondering whether it was possible for SAS to communicate with your custom task whilst the custom task is running. Say I have a login custom task, and the user name and/or password is incorrect. Is it possible for the custom task to supply code to SAS, for SAS to run a program, return a result to the task whilst it is still active, and then act upon this result? This would allow SAS to check the validity of a username/password, return the result and the custom task could then decide to ask the user to try again rather than ending and displaying a result via the output window. All the custom task examples that i can see, work by building up a SAS program, then submitting it at which point the custom task ends. Also Chris, any idea when your book on custom tasks will be published? - I am eagerly awaiting. Thanks ... View more

Thanks Chris, just what I needed. Nick ... View more

Hi, That would be fantastic. I am using SAS Enterprise Guide 4.2, and using visual studio express. Just one more thing. I am dissapointed at the lack of documentation for custom tasks in SAS EG 4.2. The 'Creating Custom Add-In Tasks for SAS Enterprise Guide' website still only gives examples for EG 4.1 and the link http://support.sas.com/documentation/onlinedoc/guide/customtasks/samples/zqj_EG42CustomTasks.zip whilst good, still looks like a work in progress. It would be great to see when the other chapters are finished. Are there any other resources, books etc which gives a better representation of how SAS EG and custom tasks interact, other than the help files? Would be much appreciated as the implementation of Custom Tasks has so much potential for our organisation. The ability to create tasks using the microsoft express development tools opens up custom tasks to everyone and it is a shame there is not much info out there - at least that I can find. Thanks. Nick ... View more