It's an educational thing. Students are taught SQL and have to use EXCEL. When I took the "Statistics using SAS" courses in College, I knew way more about SAS then the instructors. Even NC state's SAS programs (where SAS was created by Mr. Goodnight at the time) are declining. Here's the fundamental problems that I've seen over the years: 1) SAS is a data centric language, whereas all other programming languages were machine control centric, except COBOL. Today, kids are taught Java, C++/C#, .NET, and web related languages = HTML, X... , perhaps PERL, PHP. And most compute environments are PC based because they are "cheap", every student has their own PC, they are required to do so so that they can have email and MS Word for their English and History papers. Java is object oriented and free, SAS is not. Oracle, SQL server, and MySQL are viewed as real databases, SAS is not. 2) Most SAS "programmers" I've met are not computer science majors, but Psychologists, Economists, Mathematicians, even English Majors. So, they have not had any real programming classes and break all the old rules and programming conventions. 3) Today students have to use Excel in school and thus become very efficient at Excel Pivot tables. This is fine for small stuff, and makes us older people who predate Excel "dinosaurs" who are very proficient at analyzing large data sets with SAS and can only stumble around with Excel Pivot tables. 4) SAS classes by SAS, just like Oracle classes by Oracle, Cisco classes, etc. are short and expensive. So, few people take these classes, and do so only to help them get "certified". 5) Too many people these days learn and are taught by rote, not critical creative thinking. SAS documentation used to be great ! It's not any more. Solutions: Dr. Goodnight should find a way to make a greater emphasis on education, both in quantity and quality. Just because a person has a PhD in Clinical Psychology and has used some SAS jobs to do their study statistics, should not qualify them to teach Statistics using SAS -- one of my college classes. Professional education of SAS by SAS should be less expensive per class, and then provide more classes. He should start a true SAS Institute/College, that teaches math, statistics, analysis, etc. offering degrees in Applied Mathematics, Econometrics, Psychometrics, etc. and certificates related to SAS programming, and various industry related subjects. This is only the tip of my iceberg. I'll get off my soap box now. ! SAS is the greatest data processing language/system on the planet !
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