The transition from SAS DMS to EG is not always easy, especially for Programmers/Developers who, through the years, have stretched the programming interface options and coding possibilities of SAS on the DMS environment (whether on Windows, Mainframe or Unix).
I know of some colleagues who still resist the passage to EG and insist on keeping a SAS/Desktop licence. For how long, who knows. The extra licensing cost will eventually work as a deterrent for them (and for the manager who pays the software bills). Some SAS sites do not use the DMS at all anymore, let alone SAS/CONNECT, so it's becoming a matter of 'adapting to EG or else' in many cases.
Having used SAS DMS for more than 15 years and EG for the last 3, I can relate to some of the challenges mentioned by Chris@NZ. I must say however, that I tend to use the DMS less and less, to the point that I spend most of my working day on EG. You get used to it. Like for every new software tool or interface, it requires adaptation and a mindset change.
For a start, Code Nodes in EG must preferably contain short chunks of SAS code instead of 1,000's of lines. The modular nature of EG allows for smooth code section sequencing, based on functional output. You can execute the lot or partially, at will. If you want the whole lot compiled into one big piece of code, EG does it for you under the 'File' -> 'Export All Code' option.
The lines on the Code Node Program Editor can be activated from the 'Tools' -> 'Options' -> 'SAS Programs' -> 'Editor Options' (button). However, no line-command editing 'a la ISPF' possble. Oh, well...
If you want to copy/paste a list of variables from a dataset, the quickest way is to do a 'Data' -> 'Dataset Attributes' an then pick them from either the resulting dataset or HTML outputs. Opening the SASHELP.VCOLUMN view is another option, but very slow to query (especially if your site has hundreds of libraries and datasets).
Library paths can be obtained by submitting 'libname [libref-name] list;'
The 'X' system command seems to work only when invoking .BAT files from specific server drives (using Drive letters local to the server, and not the UNC path notation). Execution level permissions must be allowed on such drive(s).
I haven't used EG 4.2 extensively yet (let alone 4.3), so I won't comment on the new features just yet. But I'm sure the goal is to make it as developer-friendly as possible. SAS's direction is clear: server-based solutions and very thin clients. So EG is here to stay and it will keep evolving. The same cannot be said about DMS on SAS/Desktop. So, I'd suggest the sooner you move from DMS to EG the better.
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