delong@dukeac.UUCP (Carl E. Delong) (12/02/88)
In response to the question:
{With all the incredible programs for the Mac, why doesn't somebody
create a decent statistics package (there are over 200 packages
available for DOS, about 10 for the Mac !!!!).
heath@gpu.utcs.edu or psyc.utoronto.edu!heath}
I recently attended a Project Management Institute meeting held at
SAS headquarters in Cary, NC. SAS has developed a PM package that
they are promoting. While talking to a Marketing Manager, I mentioned
that I had a Mac and I wondered why they did not have a version of
SAS for the Mac as they have for the MSDOS PCs.
He said that they had investigated it and approached Apple for info,
but couldn't make an agreement with Apple. He said that they had put
a large effort into it, but had now abandoned it.
Take this with a grain of salt as I was not paying close attention
as I was after other information plus I was talking to a marketing
person:
If I understood him right, he said SAS uses all the features
of a Machine in developing their program, ie. they do things such as
direct screen writes, etc. Thus, they make agreements
for all the knowledge of the internal workings of a machine. He
indicated that Apple still holds information close to the vest so to
speak(I guess their ROMs). Anyway, they were unable to come to an
agreement. This made some sense to me and seemed to be a reason why
maybe others, such as SPSS, have not produced versions for the Mac.
Again take this with a grain of salt.
By the way, the SAS headquarters is very impressive even though I went
there in the evening after dark. It was like a small college campus.
There must have been at least 10 new 3 to 5 story buildings. Their
training facilities were excellent. We met in a building where they
do training.