Date:         Wed, 15 Nov 2006 22:39:28 -0800
Reply-To:     David L Cassell <davidlcassell@MSN.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         David L Cassell <davidlcassell@MSN.COM>
Subject:      Re: Notepad++ for SAS
In-Reply-To:  <c2192a610611150718o36bdcea3r14dd1fac9d72ad07@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed

proccontents@GMAIL.COM wrote back:
>
>Hello David,
>Sorry to ask you such a dumb question but why do we need some other editor
>when SAS itself has enhanced editor, I have seen people using text pad at
>work place for developing their programs, I do not understand why they were
>doing so, when I asked some body he said he was doing it for long time so
>he
>is used to it nothing else,
>
>I have been following this thread, I have few basic questions like if I
>download one of these editors I do not need to have the sas installed (or
>for that purpose even Perl or C++ ) installed on my laptop, because the
>some
>websites referred above clamming all kinds of language editor.
>
>thanks

Some people are welded to a particular editor, as is your colleague.
I personally don't consider that a reason not to change.  After
all I knew someone who liked WYLBUR and didn't want to change
to something new.

My feeling is that you should try enough editors to find one that
matches with your particular programming style.  I like Emacs, and
I like vi, and I like Ultra-Edit, and I like several other editors I have
tried.  Right now, I'm trying out Crimson Editor just for fun.

Having tried a lot of editors in my decades in the biz, I can tell
you that the SAS Enhanced Editor may be 'enhanced' compared
to the old SAS editor window, but it is not as sophisticated as a
lot of programming editors out there.  So plenty of people who
use SAS want features that do not exist in the Enhanced Editor,
or that are not easily accessible in the Enhanced Editor.

As for using these other editors, you do not have to have any
programming language running in order to try one.  You can learn
a tool like Emacs or vi by editing text files (in principle, anyway).
So try out something powerful, like Ultra-Edit, or something
super-powerful like XEmacs, or something weird like vi, and just
play with it a bit.  See if it has features you need.

Then write to suggest@sas.com and whine that those features
are lacking from the SAS editor.  The more complaints they get,
the more likely they are to change things.

David
--
David L. Cassell
mathematical statistician
Design Pathways
3115 NW Norwood Pl.
Corvallis OR 97330

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