Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2009 18:35:15 -0500
Reply-To: Arthur Tabachneck <art297@NETSCAPE.NET>
Sender: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From: Arthur Tabachneck <art297@NETSCAPE.NET>
Subject: Re: Programmer Productivity using EE,
UE and Enterprise Guide - The end of an era?
Roger,
Just a few comments. First, unless you had rounded the experience numbers,
thanks for making me feel young. I only have 36 years experience!
As I've mentioned a number of times I, too, am not an expert in EG because
my IT staff have never been able to properly install it on my machine. For
that I'm not sure whether to blame them or SI.
We all have our editor preferences. I happen to like EE, but I've often
heard folk indicate that they might die if deprived of ultraedit, multiedit,
or whichever flavor of editor they endorse.
I wonder if the various editors support EG.
You wrote:
>SAS has unlimited power to bring some advanced programmers to there
>knees by forcing EG on everyone with a very agressive pricing policy
>and depracating UE and EE.
No, they don't! Yes, it has been debilitating, but there are a number of us
in positions from which such decisions can be challenged. Easy? Of course
not! Doable? Definitely! In fact, probably essential!
My main complaint with SI is with respect to what criteria are used to
determine the priority of fixes. I think, today, such criteria are set by
their marketing folk which i think is a BIG mistake.
And I didn't even need a soapbox,
Art
---------
On Fri, 11 Dec 2009 11:04:10 -0800, xlr82sas <xlr82sas@AOL.COM> wrote:
>Hi SAS-Lers,
>
>SOAPBOX ON
>
> I AM NOT AN EXPERT IN EG
>
> I feel we are at the end of an era in what I consider essential
>programming tools. I know I am mostly alone and even the programmers
>around me cannot understand why I use the UE (unenhanced editor)
>instead of the EE. More recently I have seen posts that Enterprise
>Guide blows away EE and UE with programming tools. I have been labeled
>as not embracing 'modern' interfaces like EG. This theme is repeated
>over and over again. I have about 40 years experience with SAS ISPF
>editors. I worked with early ISPF functionality at IBM. So this is a
>biased analysis.
>
>SAS has unlimited power to bring some advanced programmers to there
>knees by forcing EG on everyone with a very agressive pricing policy
>and depracating UE and EE.
>
> Here are a few reasons for using the UE and why I don't think EE or
>EG are better. I think EE is getting very close recently. For a more
>exhaustive explanation go to my site. I think EE will support most of
>the functions below but you have to turn off the command bar and the
>'prefix' area is less useful. I don't think EG supports these
>functions in the same way, because EG does not have a command line or
>function keys. Keyboard macros seem less powerful then command line
>macros and I don't think you can read the clipboard in EG, so most of
>the functions below will not work?
>
> I use one of the following tools at least every 30 seconds while
>programming and I don't see most of these toos in EG. Most can be
>coded in EE. I feel these are essential tools.
>
>1. The UE allows users to reclaim more screen realstate then EE or EG.
>For instance I don't use scroll bars. F1 scrolls left and F2 scrolls
>right. Page down and the mouse wheel are all I need for vertical
>scrolling. I feel screen realstate is critical. Just cut you screen in
>half for a while.
>
>2. Having a clean command line on each UE editor allows me to execute
>all of SAS from the command line. The home key moves the cursor to the
>command line. If you set up EE properly home will take you to the
>clean command line instead of the command bar.
>
>3. If I hit F8 a proc contents of the last dataset will appear in the
>output window, with the position option and a title that contains the
>dataset name and number of obs.
>
>4. If I highlight a dataset and hit F9 then the contents of the
>highlighted dataset will appear in the output window.
>
>5. If i hit F3 30 obs fro the last dataset created will appear in the
>output window.
>
>6. If I highlight a dataset and hit F4 then 30 obs of the highlighted
>dataset will appear in the output window.
>
>7. If I highlight a dataset and hit F5 then then all obs of the
>highlighted dataset will appear in the output window.
>
>8. If I hit home and then type frq age*sex a crosstab of age*sex will
>appear in the output window
>
>9. If I highlight a dataset and hit home and type frqhi age*sex a
>crosstab for highlighted dataset will appear in the output window.
>
>10. If I hit home and type prt sex age (or prthi patient sex age) then
>30 obs with just those variables will appear in the ouput window
>
>11. If I highlight a macro variable(&systime) and hit right mouse
>(submit) the value appears in the log. Or home %put &systime
>
>11. If iI hit home and type 'c roger mike all' then roger will be
>changed to mike in all lines of the editor.
>I feel this is a productivity boost over menus. Note there are many
>options for the change command.
>I am looking into something like 'c roger mike in george' change roger
>to mike in lines that contain george. I could do this back in late 70s
>using the 'INTERACT' editor on IBM mainframes.
>
>There are many more
> Automatic job submission and retrieval back to display manager with
>log scrub via one function key
> SCCS SAS command line macros ckc,ckn,cko,tel.....
>
>Two fun command line macros
>
>xplo ROGER
>This command line macro will put ROGER in exploded text into the
>output window.
>
>iota 30 This will generate intergers 1-30 one on each line in the your
>editor.
>
>It is only up to the imagination of the programmer to develop
>productivity tools using command lines.
>
>for moe information see:
>
>http://homepage.mac.com/magdelina/.Public/utl.html
>
>SOAPBOX OFF
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