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List:       sas-l
Subject:    Re: R and SAS solution for longest run in 20,000 coin flips
From:       Rick Wicklin <rick.wicklin () SAS ! COM>
Date:       2016-03-27 20:36:19
Message-ID: 8183169989025585.WA.rick.wicklinsas.com () listserv ! uga ! edu
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Hi Nat,
Yes, getting the word out is a constant challenge. With internet search engines, it \
is much easier, as a huge percentage of people who come to a sas.com domain get there \
through a search.

In your example of 
"sas/IML" calling [R]
I wrote 7 of the top 10 links on the resulting Google search.  I prefer for SAS \
documention to be the primary resource because it is obviously an "official" and \
people feel they can trust it.  By linking to the doc from my blogs, the doc is given \
greater weight by the search engines, which is the way I want it.

Thanks for your feedback,
Rick

----------

On Sun, 27 Mar 2016 14:28:58 -0400, Nat Wooding <nathani@VERIZON.NET> wrote:

> Rick
> 
> I've been thinking of what you wrote and my reaction is that while the R&D team is \
> laboring to test these solutions and writing about them, I wonder how easily the \
> SAS user in the trenches can really learn of their efforts. Since I don't use IML \
> and am not active in the Communities area (and also, do very little statistics and \
> have no contact with R), I don't know how well the message reaches the folks who do \
> these things. I did the Google "search sas:iml r functions" and got a number of \
> hits but none on the first visible screen mentioned your blogs although I did find \
> you as I scrolled a bit and I don't know how well other searches would do. I'm \
> thinking that it may be a matter of "If you build it, they may come -- or they may \
> not".  I think that a major issue is getting the message out to those who don't \
> know to even look for it. One suggestion would be to include prominently mention of \
> the R&D resources in the on-line documentation. For example, one of the pages that \
> I saw was 
> http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/imlug/63541/HTML/default/viewer.htm#imlug_r_sect012.htm
>  
> I would suggest adding a "further reading" section at the bottom of the page. I \
> realize that such resources come and go ( I once did a short paper on SAS Resources \
> and my first statement was "This information was obsolete as soon as I hit 'Save'") \
> but a generic statement telling that additional tools, libraries, and such may be \
> found by searching for ... and supply some stable blogs and related sites and \
> suggest that further searches might be fruitful. 
> Hope you're having a good weekend.
> 
> Nat
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Rick Wicklin
> Sent: Sunday, March 27, 2016 12:57 PM
> To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: R ans SAS solution for longest run in 20,000 coin flips
> 
> Art,
> Thanks for the note. It is always good to hear ways that SAS can better serve its \
> customers.  
> I do not speak for SAS. However, some might argue that SAS already pays for a team  \
> to create, test, and document functionality for customers. The team is called "SAS \
> R&D." It sounds like you think that SAS R&D is not adequately serving customer \
> needs with regards to implementing and documenting functions that are built using \
> the SAS language. Thank you for raising that issue.  
> You might not be aware that many members of SAS R&D, including myself, are trying \
> to address your concern. For example, I have written more than 700 articles on my \
> blog that show how to use existing SAS features to "fill in the gaps" and implement \
> niche computations and statistics, both in Base SAS and IML. SAS created the \
> Interface to R so that R programmers can call niche computations in R, if they \
> prefer. We established a SAS/IML File Exchange where programmers can exchange \
> libraries of IML functions. There is a new PACKAGE feature in the SAS/IML language \
> that enables SAS/IML programmers to create, share, and use libraries that are \
> written by other users.  I will be talking about this feature at SAS Global Forum \
> 2016: http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/imlug/68150/HTML/default/viewer.htm#imlug_packages_toc.htm
>  
> Other SAS employees like Chris Hemedinger and Sanjay Matange have made similar \
> contributions in other areas. Some employees have repositories on Git where they \
> share programs and techniques. Dozens of SAS employees blog and post daily on the \
> SAS Support Communities to try to help customer use features of the SAS language \
> more effectively. 
> None of this is intended to discount your statement, but merely to show that SAS is \
> already paying a team of experts who are trying to do the activities that you \
> suggest. Our work is made easier due to the immeasureable contributions of the \
> experienced programmers on SAS-L and other SAS communities.  There is always more \
> to do, and I welcome concrete functions that you might want to see developed. 
> Once again, I do not speak for SAS. Best Wishes.
> Rick Wicklin
> 
> 
> 
> On Sun, 27 Mar 2016 11:26:18 -0400, Arthur Tabachneck <art@ANALYSTFINDER.COM> \
> wrote: 
> > Rick,
> > 
> > I've raised this before, but your post leads me to raise it again. For quite a \
> > few years I've thought that it would be in the best interest of SAS Institute to \
> > sponsor (i.e., pay for) a small team who could facilitate the acquisition, \
> > testing and organization of a library of functions like the one you proposed as \
> > part of this thread. The vehicle for creating and maintaining such a library \
> > already exists at sasCommunity.org. 
> > Art, CEO, AnalystFinder.com


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