Date:         Wed, 7 Jan 2004 12:24:23 -0500
Reply-To:     "Chang Y. Chung" <chang_y_chung@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Chang Y. Chung" <chang_y_chung@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: SAS9.1 availability question
Comments: To: Paul Ehresmann <EHRES001@SURGERYTRIALS.DUKE.EDU>

On Wed, 7 Jan 2004 12:02:44 -0500, Ehresmann, Paul
<EHRES001@SURGERYTRIALS.DUKE.EDU> wrote:

>Also, there are a number of newly-developed PROCS - especially PROC
MIGRATE
>- that are available in 9.1, but which will be "fine-tuned" in 9.2. This
>MIGRATE is a real beauty, because it allows the migration of everything
from
>8.2 - some say even 6.12 can be migrated - into 9.1/9.2 with a minimum of
>effort. You can check this proc out at SAS:
>http://support.sas.com/rnd/migration/resources/procmigrate/.

Hi,

I do agree with most of the comments Paul made. Except about the proc
migrate, that is.

Admittedly that I am being naive, but the fact that sas needs a brand new
procedure just to read something that was created by sas itself seems to
me being in a sorry situation. Especially when some additional hard drive
space costs few dollars, why can't sas keep all the working code in the
new version that will enable sas users not to worry about reading the
older files -- it is hard enough to keep up and to worry about the files
created by the newer versions of sas.

In some other software I use, it is guaranteed that a newer version be
able to read any files created by older versions, regardless of the
platform where they were initially created. It also provides a "version"
command, such that after a command like "version 5" is issued, the whole
software works as if it is a version 5, even though it is in fact an
instance of the brand new version 8! I know someone would say that sas is
so huge and supports so many os's that this will be impossible. Well, I am
just curious, is it really?

Cheers,
Chang