Fascinating Phil, thanks for sharing this, really nice integration between R and WPS.

I just wrote it on another private group but I will say it briefly here- SAS needs to simplify pricing, licensing, and product lineup. Excel with Visual Studio serve as excellent tools for analysis with the Microsoft platform, I really wish this was a reality from SAS with one analytic front-end unifying all functionality- be it EG or JMP, etc. Based on the task at hand today I might need to use EG, EM, Forecast Studio, JMP, Dataflux, Stat Studio, and/or the Power and Sample Size application. How much R&D, tech support, and education resource is wasted at SAS to support so many apps when they could all be fronted from one app framework? All you would need is to have the right license and then all your users are up and running!

Finally, I am still shocked that you wouldn't want to encourage independent consultants with generous terms, perhaps charging a low flat rate per consultant and a low % or supplement for work at customers without SAS licenses. Availability of SAS consultant expertise is low relative to opportunities IMO. I know many consultants who really wanted to be pure SAS shops but instead turned to other vendors to supplement their offerings due to the issues with SAS licensing. I believe the appropriate statement here is penny wise and pound foolish. Many independent consultants who are thriving would be very good for SAS... It seems the last thing you would want to do is to place roadblocks in their way.

Regards, Stephen

-----Original Message----- From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Phil Rack Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 6:08 PM To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: Re: Rant: I really hate the SAS pricing structure

Hi Frederique,

Many of us feel your pain. WPS is a SAS/Base alternative that uses the SAS language. It has the same SAS data step and most of the procedures in base SAS. It is missing PROC REPORT. It does include most of the SAS/ACCESS modules as part of the package. You can learn more about WPS by visiting their website at http://www.teamwpc.co.uk/home

Since you mention using R, I have written a bridge that works with WPS and allows you to use R code from within the WPS Workbench (the IDE). I have a short three minute screencast showing how this works at: http://www.minequest.com/downloads/WPS2R_Bridge.html

Phil Rack www.minequest.com

-----Original Message----- From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of fvernhes@GMAIL.COM Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 8:52 PM To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: Re: Rant: I really hate the SAS pricing structure

Hi,

What is WPS? I am trying to google it, but I can't quite figure it out. Help?

Thanks f/

On Mar 10, 5:05 am, amada_...@yahoo.com.au wrote: > I stopped using SAS about two years ago, and switched to WPS. We run > the same progs and data as before, and we have saved a lot on software > costs. Managers = happy. WPS is very fast, it is true it does not > support Proc Report, but as people as said before it supports near-on > everything else. I would urge people to check it out, even mix WPS > with SAS as someone said WPS supports sas data formats and so on.