Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
APPENDIX B
Primer on SAS
B.1 HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
The SAS Web site provides a comprehensive history of the software and
the company. Here is a synopsis of that information. SAS, an acronym
for Statistical Analysis Software, is a set of statistical analysis procedures
housed together within a large application. The idea for it was conceived
by Anthony J. Barr, a graduate student at North Carolina State University,
between 1962 and 1964. Barr collaborated with Jim Goodnight in 1968
to integrate regression and ANOVA procedures into the software. The
project received a major boost in 1973 from the contribution of John
P. Sall. Other participants in the early years included Caroll G. Perkins,
Jolayne W. Service, and Jane T. Helwig. The SAS Institute was established
in Raleigh, NC in 1976 when the first base SAS software was released. The
company moved to its present location, Cary, NC, in 1980.
As is true for SPSS, the procedures it performs are driven by code
(SPSS calls it
syntax
) that comprises its own command language. SAS
began being used on mainframe computers several decades ago when the
only way to instruct the software to perform the statistical analyses was
by punching holes on computer cards via a card-reader machine and later
by typing in this code on an otherwise blank screen. It should be noted
that, unlike SPSS, the vast majority of current SAS users still prefer a
code-driven interface.
SAS released its first Windows version in 1993. Windows uses a graph-
ical user interface (abbreviated GUI but thought of by most people as
point and click) to make selections from dialog screens. These selections
are translated “behind the scenes” to SAS code but the code can be viewed
by a click of the mouse.
SAS Enterprise Guide
is the third iteration of SAS's
GUI, and runs only in the Windows operating environment. Because
SAS
Enterprise Guide
writes code and submits it to SAS as you make selections
with the mouse or type text into dialog screens, you also need to be using
either a stand-alone computer or one connected to a network on which
SAS is installed.
B.2 INSTALLING
ENTERPRISE GUIDE
ON YOUR COMPUTER
SAS Enterprise Guide
is ordinarily shipped at no extra charge to the orga-
nizations that have ordered SAS. However, possibly because most SAS
531
