SAS?

[choppedwood]

Anybody ever work with it?  Is there a market?

Spent a couple of hours with a very smart IT guy who suggested that I look into based on my background but other than that I don't know much about it other than the basics of what it is.

[DG9]

Worked with it years back, it was/is big in some financial institutions for developing various scoring models.  Terra Data seems strong there now.  Pharma is big on SAS, but want Pharma experince using it.  Probably used with clinical trial data?

[Origisaurus]

One advantage of being an antedeluvian sauroid is having been there when ancient history took place.

In the 1950s and early 1960s, computing was new and exciting.  Many groups were formed to study and talk about various aspects.  ACM, SHARE, GUIDE, etc.  Together they put on expos called "Joint Computer Conference", Spring and Fall.  I last attended the 1969 Fall Joint in San Francisco, where I gained some notoriety by out-hustling the bumper-pool Bunny at the Playboy club.

Two organizations that came out of all this collegialism were Committee on Data Systems Languages  (CODASYL) and Data Base Task Group (DBTG).  DBTG specified a database model, which was implemented by at least two colleges, Princeton (RAMIS II) and UNC (SAS).  This was a few years before Codd & Date's relational model, but there is a strong resemblance.

SAS and RAMIS are so much alike that you can convert a retrieval command of one to the other just by moving a few lines of code around, which I have actually done.

SAS especially is still going strong.  It has always been more powerful with statistics.  If you are comfortable with the relational model and the statistics, it's a piece of cake.

If offered and accepting a gig, I would invest a Benjamin or two in manuals purchased from SAS Institute.

SAS links: SAS Institute and Wikipedia on SAS

[TRexx]

I haven't used it in years but SAS is a very powerful language. A bit tricky to learn if you are coming from a procedural language like COBOL, but once you get the basics concepts, you can do all kinds of cool stuff.

One of my favorite uses was to compare two files and kick out the records in A & B, A & not B, and B & not A. If I recall you could do that in one statement. 

Also the SAS Institute is almost always ranked as one of the country's best employers.  You rarely see them advertise for help since people hardly every leave.

[choppedwood]

Thanks for the replies.  You've basically said the same things as what my friend said.  They appear to have a certification path but no demo that you can download so I'm not quite sure how to learn it / break in especially since the cost of purchasing appears to be enough to cover a down payment on a house.

Anyways, I'll keep it on the radar.  Maybe I'll get lucky one of these days.

[The Gorn]

I know someone at my church who is a SAS consultant (actually works for SAS.) An older guy (70ish) but travels around the country to projects. One day when we chatted he confirmed the mythos around SAS as an exceptionally nice employer. His stories about SAS were like the mirror universe equivalent of stories from this board about crappy clients and employers.

Next time I see him I'll try to remember to ask him for some pointers on getting on-board with the tool and opportunities. I'll let you know.

[Origisaurus]

Thanks for the replies.  You've basically said the same things as what my friend said.  They appear to have a certification path but no demo that you can download so I'm not quite sure how to learn it / break in especially since the cost of purchasing appears to be enough to cover a down payment on a house.

Anyways, I'll keep it on the radar.  Maybe I'll get lucky one of these days.

Although there are Windoze and I suppose *ix versions, SAS comes from the mainframe mindset - no trial versions or tutorials.  The right way to learn it before actually using it is to study the manuals.  There may be some third-party books, but while SAS may be employee-friendly, they are very guarded about intellectual property.  'Twouldn't hurt to spend an hour or so searching on line for manuals, etc.