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List:       sas-l
Subject:    Re: A new "proc report"
From:       Jack Hamilton <JackHamilton () FIRSTHEALTH ! COM>
Date:       2002-12-31 23:31:14
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I agree that the problems you list are deficiencies, that there are
other deficiences you didn't list, that improvements could be made, and
that writing a replacement is one way to get those improvements (even if
its primary result is to goad SAS Institute into devoting more resources
to PROC REPORT).

I don't think, however, that you'll be able to create a general purpose
replacement before version 9.1 or so.  The user-programmable hooks to
ODS just aren't in the current version of SAS, and they will be, we've
been told, in a future version.  A successful replacement would have to
be able to create (at a minimum) listing, HTML, RTF, and PDF output, and
ODS is currently the best way to do that.




--
JackHamilton@FirstHealth.com
Manager, Technical Development
METRICS Department, First Health
West Sacramento, California USA


>>> Roland <roland@RASHLEIGH-BERRY.FSNET.CO.UK> 12/28/2002 5:00 AM >>>
I think I'll write an alternative version of "proc report" as my next
project. That should keep me occupied. I've never liked proc report
much. I
don't like the way it flows sections of order variables, leaving line
gaps
for the display values being reported. I don't like the way it shifts
your
carefully aligned column values to the right when you try to center or
left-justify the column headers. I don't like the way it orders in
formatted
alphabetical order rather than having order=internal as the default. I
don't
like it that it does not left-justify the column headings of character
fields when these character fields will be left-justified in any case.
I
don't like it that you don't know where the first column starts for
when you
want to write out your own customised lines.

I remember when proc report first came out they tried to sell it as an
extra
add-on. Yes, they expected people to pay money for it. I assessed it at
the
time and said we did not want it because I thought it so poor.

For me, proc report sucks bigtime. If anybody wrote a stupid piece of
software like that in the larger IT world then they would come in one
day to
find their logon inactive and the contents of their desk in a box.
They
would be called into an office, fired and then security guards would
escort
them to the exit.

I imagine there will be about 10 man years effort gone into proc report
but
I hope to write my first good version of it in about 4 weeks or so.
Hopefully, the final version will be less than 10,000 lines long.

Roland
--
"Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut,
that held its ground." - David Icke

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