Date:         Wed, 17 May 2000 22:31:43 +0500
Reply-To:     "Tirthankar C.P" <tir@IGIDR.AC.IN>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Tirthankar C.P" <tir@IGIDR.AC.IN>
Subject:      Should we shift ? Something more.
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

Thanks to Hermans1, Tammie Kirkland, Nigel Pain and Gerhard Hellriegel for
their wise comments.

Some clarifications are in order. No, we do not worry about UNIX commands
as such, and we do have Xcursion for Windows. And we can also map a PC drive to
the UNIX server.

I understand that the power, safety and reliability of the UNIX server puts it
as the proper option.


But, would the optimal choice change for the new machines we'd soon have ?

Meaning, would SAS run _faster_ on the main server (DEC Alpha 4100 server

dual CPU @400 Mhz 1 Gig RAM (UNIX version))

or on the client-server system where it would be SAS on Win NT 4.0, with only the

main files on the server and the program would be run on clients (PIII 550, 128 Mhz)?

We do not have the choice of _both_ the licenses.

Kindly advise.

TIA,

-Tir

Research Student, IGIDR.


> Much depends on whether SAS programmers make much use of the SAS programming
> environment and graphic displays.  Prior to Version 8, the SAS Display Manager
> did not offer much in the way of a visual programming environment.  Now it
> offers a number of useful features, including displays of library contents,
> datasets and their column attributes, and external files.  The ODS features also
> look promising as a tool for combining tables, text, and graphics in
> presentations.

> What he said...
> and I'd like to add that, if you or others do not like the Unix look and
> feel of interactive SAS (as I do not), you can license SAS/Connect and
> submit jobs from a PC SAS session to run on Unix or run against data living
> on Unix - the latter can cause network troubles if misused.
> It is helpful to have Samba or some such software that allows you to map a
> PC drive to the Unix box. In this way you can include and edit .sas files
> that actually reside on the Unix machine.

> We run SAS 6.12 on Solaris and NT4. Some systems are completely Solaris-
> based, with an X- front end (using Exceed for Windows as an X-Server);
> others are client-server, using the Sun box as the server and NT machines
> as the clients; one or two are completely Windows-based. My preference is
> for the Client-Server option, followed by the completely server-based
> option and with the completely Windows-based option trailing in a poor
> third (I say this as the person who administers and supports the systems,
> not the end-user). UNIX-based systems give you the the security, stability
> and power of a UNIX server. NT systems give you the familiar look-and-feel
> of Windows, and easy interaction with other PC applications. Client-Server
> gives you the best of both worlds.
>