urjlew@ecsvax.UUCP (Rostyk Lewyckyj) (09/10/87)
[/] This is being posted for a colleague, Dr. Lee Pedersen of the department of Chemistry, here at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Please reply directly to him, or to me and I will forward the information. --------------------------------------------------------- UNC-CH is considering purchasing a minisuper computer that runs UNIX. S is an interactive statistics package developed at Bell Labs. We are most interested in learning its plusses and minusses in comparison with SAS. We are very interested in finding a) people who have had experience with both SAS and S b) people who know where there is information (reviews) comparing SAS and S c) people in a university setting that have used S. Lee Pedersen ULGPKG@TUCC.bitnet tel. (919)-962-4403 ----------------------------------------------- Reply-To: Rostyslaw Jarema Lewyckyj urjlew@ecsvax.UUCP , urjlew@tucc.bitnet or urjlew@tucc.tucc.edu (ARPA,SURA,NSF etc. internet) tel. (919)-962-9107
jackg@hpisoa2.UUCP (09/23/87)
As regards SAS and S comparisons: I used both SAS and S when I was a graduate student at UC Berkeley. S and SAS have different, almost counterposed philosophies, from which follow their relative strengths and weaknesses. S aims at maximizing flexibility. It's interactive, so if you need a p-value for a standard distribution, you can get it immediately (rather than submitting a job). It is fairly easily extensible in two ways: first, by writing macros that use S's built-in functions; second, by actually writing new functions for S. The first method is quicker, but less powerful, since the macros have to be interpreted into S functions. Since S provides a fairly limited number of statistical routines, the ability to extend it is very important. Finally, S provides powerful graphic capabilities, which are particularly useful in conjunction with methods like Tukey's Exploratory Data Analysis. SAS, in contrast, provides a huge and powerful assortment of statistical tools. It may well have everything you need, done in the way you want it done. It is not interactive, and it is not easily extended. Jack Gerson
bruce@dolqci.UUCP (Bruce Limber) (09/25/87)
>SAS . . . is not interactive.
Correction: SAS runs in either interactive or batch mode.
--
Bruce Limber (NEW ADDRESS: uunet!vrdxhq!dolqci!bruce) (202) 535-0640
If we are not careful, we are liable to wind up where we are headed.
(Chinese proverb)
emigh@ncsugn.ncsu.edu (Ted H. Emigh) (09/26/87)
>>SAS . . . is not interactive. >Correction: SAS runs in either interactive or batch mode. Clarification: SAS is only partially interactive (at best). If nothing else, the cost to the user is MUCH larger for the interactive mode (on our machine with our cost algorithms). -- Ted H. Emigh, Dept. Genetics and Statistics, NCSU, Raleigh, NC uucp: mcnc!ncsuvx!ncsugn!emigh internet: emigh%ncsugn.ncsu.edu BITNET: NEMIGH@TUCC @ncsuvx.ncsu.edu:emigh@ncsugn.ncsu.edu