I Like Programming

%macro GoNuts( Person );

proc crazy
noscreams
person = &Person
in = life
out = lunacy ;
id maladies conditions treatments meds ;
by episode ;
run;

%mend GoNuts;

%let NutCase1 = Me ;
%let i = 1 ;
%GoNuts( &&NutCase&i );

endsas;

@ImperialAerosolKidFromEP: I write C++ too, know daemons, and sockets.

I recognize your avatar as being from the album cover of Genesis' "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway". I still have the vinyl 2 record set. :-)

I use macros heavily, I just wish these macro control structures and macro data types were more integrated with Base SAS. It seems to me SAS was made long ago just to process tabular data in sequence, and macros were added later to allow more automation. But I want to be able to, say, make a numeric variable holding one value in the middle of nowhere, not in a data step. The only way to do that is to make a 1 x 1 table. So inefficient. Then to use it on a table, I would have to merge it with the table. So inefficient. I wish SAS were more like C++ or Visual Basic.

I used UNIX in college, and we still run all our "production" SAS programs on UNIX servers. I prefer using Windows SAS on Windows servers for my research, however, since I like the Windows environment and applications, which are more GUI. I also use SAS Enterprise Viewer. Of course, there is X Windows. Also, when on UNIX, I have to ask for more space all the time. On our Windows servers, I just use what I want and nobody has yet complained!

Actually, anyone who has an AppleTV, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Android phone, Roku, FireTV, and many other devices, is using a clone of the UNIX kernel, It is buried deep within the code on each device so on the surface, it doesn't look like any traditional UNIX system. Google Linux (for Android Phones and many other devices), Darwin (specifically for Apple devices), FreeBSD, and MINIX for more details if interested in modern UNIX clones.

@joyfulSilence: The SAS language originated in 1966. It was designed for non-programmers to easily learn only what they needed to analyze their specific data sets. C++ was originally designed to add the object oriented programming model from SIMULA67 to C. C was designed for software engineers to rewrite the UNIX kernel and related apps in a portable language, which explains the vastly different user experiences of C++ and SAS.

Woah. Talking about SAS makes your heart beat faster?

It gives me a headache! LOL!

I love programming. I do a lot of SAS programming. It is not my favorite, though. It is too old-fashioned. I do not like how everything is tied to a table, and you cannot have stand-alone data structures and must use macros all over to do anything interesting. Macros are inefficient.

It's been a while. I used to do a lot of Visual Basic. That was probably my favorite, but I also programmed with SQL, PL/SQL, HTML, JavaScript, Unix Shell Scripting, Java, Excel Macros. But I'm not longer doing that stuff anymore. I manage those that do. SAS is very, very handy.

The reason why I said Prozac is because Fluoxetine was a study that I did long ago. You said GoNuts that is what made me think of that.

Although I assign SAS variables, some of them are conditions,treatments,outcomes. This is apart of adverse events which I am sure you guys have heard of.

#joyfulSilence: Some advocates of the various UNIX clones (or of UNIX itself, as it's still sold) are as intense about their favorite as some of the Star Wars characters. I'm not intense about any--each has its optimal place in the market.

I use SAS because that is what is used on my job. I had to learn it on the job. But I had a minor in CS and have skill learning new languages. I know what I want to do, I just have to figure out the syntax. Most languages do similar things.

Never mind Imperial,

UNIX is one I use to utilize thousands of years ago. Lol I know it not the same but since it seems to run in the background I would love to learn more about it.

Actually macros have helped me a lot because of the data that I program. Because it is so repetitive it makes things a lot easier and efficient.

Programming is ok, makes for predictable outcomes says my dominatrix friend. Wait you're talking about computers or something I bet.

JoyfulSilence,
Im still here. I am loving this. It reminds me of my boss and the papers he has published on SAS and other programming languages.

JoyFulSilence,
Both of my bosses are statistician and theoretical physicist. It's like the Big Bang Theory for 50 year olds.

ImperialAerosolKidfromEP...you said a mouthful. As I used to say, software would be so much better without those pesky users.

JoyfulSilence,
You are after my heart and I don't know if I can handle your mind. It makes my heart beat. My heart hasn't beat in months.

Oh, so you are in a bio-medical field? I work on economic data. But I am not an economist, but a mathematician.

I used to work at SAS Institute as a programmer on the SAS System's internal code.

Shucks, SW does not preserve the white space I added.

My entire office of about 15 are statisticians/mathematicians.

Never heard of SAS. Is it a high level program?

Imperial,
Never heard of daemons.

%Prozac( &How );

Prozac anyone?

You still there?

Clone Wars?

C++, sockets, daemons
I don't like front-end stuff as much. Programming for irrational systems (people) is tedious