One of the problems that Lora Delwiche and I face as authors of two books with similar titles (The Little SAS Book and The Little SAS Book for Enterprise Guide) and multiple editions (five of LSB and three of LSBEG) is explaining how the books are different.
The two books are totally different–and complementary.
If you had told me, back when we wrote the first edition, that some day we would write a fifth; I would have wondered how we could possibly find that much to say. After all…it is supposed to be The LittleSAS Book, isn’t it?
But those clever folk at SAS Institute are constantly hard at work dreaming up new and better ways of analyzing and visualizing data. And some of those ways turn out to be so fundamental that they belong even in a little book about SAS. That’s especially true of this edition.
SAS 9.3 introduced several fundamental changes. So we rewrote the book to reflect these. One of the new defaults is that output is rendered as HTML instead of text. That meant that almost every section in the book needed to be updated to show the new default output. And since text output still has its uses, we added a section on how to send output to the good old LISTING destination.
In addition, ODS Graphics has matured a lot since it was introduced with SAS 9.2. It has new default behaviors, and is now part of Base SAS. The fourth edition of our book included a few sections on the SG procedures (SG stands for Statistical Graphics), but these procedures have developed so much that we felt they now deserved their own chapter.
In addition, here and there we split sections in two or added new ones to expand on features that were only mentioned before.
Here’s a short list, in no particular order, of new or expanded topics in the fifth edition:
Linguistic sorting
Concatenating macro variables with other text
AGE argument for the YRDIF function for computing accurate ages
LISTING destination for text output
PROC TTEST
PROC SGPANEL
Graph legends and insets
Graph attributes such as lines and markers
Image properties such as DPI
Saving graphics output
Many new graph options such as NBINS= for bar charts
Along the way, we removed topics or sections that had begun to feel dated or out of place. For example, we took out the appendix on Coming to SAS from SPSS because it is now available as a free download that is both better and more complete.
So even though we have added a lot to this edition, it is still a little book. In fact, this edition is shorter than the last—by one whole page!
To order a copy of this book, or view the table of contents or a sample of the book, visit the SAS Press web site.
During the discussion, the topic of reviewer comments came up. I mentioned that when Lora Delwiche and I first sent our proposal for The Little SAS Book to SAS Institute, one of the reviewers said, “It’s not possible to write a book like this, and if you do, then you will be doing a disservice to readers!” That was a pretty strong statement, and it stung—a lot. I mentioned this to make the point that you can’t let negative comments derail you from following your dreams. However, I now realize that I may have left people with the impression that they can safely ignore any comments they don’t like. On the contrary, I have learned the hard way that
There is something to be learned from every reviewer’s comment.
Those comments you don’t like…they’re the ones you should pay the most attention to. Maybe, just maybe, that reviewer knows something that you don’t. And maybe, just maybe, that reviewer is even right. If that is the case, wouldn’t you rather find out before your book goes to press? Yessiree, that reviewer might be doing you a favor. Maybe you should (politely!) ask that reviewer for more information. At times like this, it is important to set aside all defensiveness and listen because there is something to be learned from every reviewer’s comment—although it is not always what the reviewer intended.
For example, you will likely get some comments that are just factually incorrect. When you do, it’s tempting to think, This reviewer doesn’t understand!, and then ignore the comment. However, when you get such comments, you should ask yourself, Why doesn’t this reviewer understand? If the reviewer didn’t understand, then perhaps readers won’t understand. Can you make your writing more clear? Did you fail to explain something? What does this reviewer need to know in order to understand?
So what was the lesson to be learned from the reviewer who said that it was impossible to write The Little SAS Book, and that if we did, we would be doing a disservice to readers? The lesson I learned is that some people will react very negatively to a book that is small and friendly. Of course, Lora Delwiche and I never imagined that we were writing a book that would appeal to everyone and that would meet every SAS programmer’s needs. But we also never imagined that some people would react so violently. Honestly, I do think that some people need to get a life. It’s just a book, for goodness sake. But even so, this reviewer did us a favor by warning us.
I’ve been so busy over the last month that I am just now getting a chance to sort through my notes from SAS Global Forum 2011. Here are a few highlights I found:
SAS OnDemand for Academics
SAS OnDemand for Academics (the cloud computing version of SAS) will be free for academic research starting in Fall of 2011. This is exciting news! I’m surprised it didn’t get a lot more attention at the conference. Since Fall 2010, SAS OnDemand for Academics has been free for use by students enrolled in courses that use SAS. However, the number of professors and students doing research is far greater than the number of students enrolled in courses that use SAS. In addition, professors now have more reason to teach SAS because students will be able to use it after the class is over. This change will help SAS to compete with R since the main reason that R is so popular is because it is free, but SAS Institute will need to work hard to get the word out.
New output in SAS 9.3
SAS 9.3—which is expected to be released this summer—will bring major enhancements to output. For the first time ever, text output (AKA listing) will no longer be the default. HTML will become the default destination for output in Display Manager, and a new default style template, HTMLBlue, will make our output pretty. Of course, you will still be able to turn on text output for those times when you need vanilla instead of mocha-almond-fudge.
ODS Graphics will be part of Base SAS starting with SAS 9.3
ODS Graphics (which became production with SAS 9.2) continues to grow in both features and popularity. In SAS 9.2 you need a SAS/GRAPH license to use ODS Graphics, but starting with SAS 9.3 it will be part of Base SAS. This is good news because it will make sophisticated graphs available to all users of SAS/STAT regardless of whether they have a SAS/GRAPH license. This should also help SAS to compete with R since the second most common reason that people use R is because it produces graphics. (Of course, traditional SAS/GRAPH still does a lot of things that ODS Graphics doesn’t, and you will still need a SAS/GRAPH license to use traditional SAS/GRAPH.)
ODS Graphics will be on by default in SAS 9.3 in Display Manager
One of the problems with ODS Graphics in SAS 9.2 is that you need to turn it on. Many of the people who need it most (occasional statistical users) never learned about it and therefore never turned it on. SAS 9.3 will fix this problem by producing graphs for statistical procedures automatically. This applies only to statistical procedures run in Display Manager; for jobs run in batch, ODS Graphics will still be off by default.
New features in ODS Graphics
In addition to becoming part of Base SAS and being on by default, ODS Graphics will deliver many new features in SAS 9.3. Here are a few of the ones that I’m excited about: bin control on histograms, side-by-side bar charts, ability to control the order of groups, grouped box plots, interval box plots, ability to produce bar charts from pre-summarized data, ability to draw a line using slope-intercept values, and even pie charts—because corporations still produce annual reports despite Stephen Few’s quixotic ranting against them.
New ODS Graphics documentation
One highlight of SGF was something I didn’t see. SAS developers Sanjay Matange and Dan Heath have written a book about SG procedures. A pre-production draft of his book was on display in the Demo Room, but I didn’t get to see it because both copies of the book were stolen! Julie Platt, Editor-in-Chief for SAS Press, told me that this is the first time a pre-production draft has ever been stolen. The fact that someone or some people couldn’t wait a few months for the book to be published says something about how eager people are to use SG procedures.
Enterprise Guide 5.1
Enterprise Guide 5.1 which is scheduled for release toward the end of this year (after SAS 9.3, not at the same time) uses the same basic layout and menus as EG 4.2 and 4.3. This is good news. Early versions of EG evolved so rapidly, that users were forced to learn an entirely new interface with each new release. Starting with EG 4.2, the interface has stabilized. It means that this is a good time to learn EG. If you’ve been waiting on the sidelines wondering when to jump in, it’s time to get your swimsuit.
Las Vegas
I admit I was sceptical about Las Vegas as a location for SGF, but the city of “Lost Wages” turned out to be a fun and classy location for a gathering of SASites (despite the irony of a bunch of statisticians meeting in a gambling capital). I would not be surprised to see SGF return to Las Vegas again.
Semicolon People: The Video
Here we see the real reason why people attend SGF—because it’s so much darn fun. If you missed it at the conference (as I did), it’s not too late to see the video produced by Greg Nelson and Neil Howard. Will next year bring a “Return of the Semicolon People” video?
Like all writers (and artists, musicians, software developers, and other creators of content) I am concerned about the problem of copyright infringement. (Here is my previous post about this.) So I was interested to find out that while I was at the Western Users of SAS Software conference, there was a veritable brouhaha about this issue.
In case you missed it, here is what happened: A blogger named Monica Gaudio discovered that a post she had written about the history of apple pie had been published by a for-profit magazine named Cooks Source. (Here is the original blog.) Cooks Source gave Gaudio credit but didn’t pay her a cent or even inform her that they had used her work. Gaudio asked Cooks Source to apologize and make a $130 donation to the Columbia School of Journalism. Cooks Source refused to apologize or make the donation, and even suggested that Gaudio should pay them for editing her work. When people heard about this, they began to wonder about the source of Cooks Source’s other content. Using the Web, they quickly found that Cooks Source had lifted articles from Martha Stewart, the Food Network, Weight Watchers, and even NPR. (Here is the story on NPR.)
Cooks Source claimed that anything on the Web is public domain and therefore free for them to use without compensating (or even crediting) the creators of that work. This is simply not true. Virtually nothing written in the last 20 years is public domain. (Here is an interview with a legal expert on NPR.)
Cook’s Source has now apologized. (Here is their web site.) However, they have also changed their story and now claim that publishing Gaudio’s article was an “oversight.” Illogically, they also claim that they are the real victims here.
I, for one, am just happy to see the attention this issue has generated.
Note: The image in this blog was used by permission of the USDA Agricultural Research Service.
My sister recently told me that the Sacramento public library lists one copy of The Little SAS Book in their catalog. However, it turns out that someone has stolen that one copy.
I figure that’s a compliment of sorts: Someone wanted The Little SAS Book enough to steal it. To tell the truth I was flattered that the Sacramento public library had a copy of The Little SAS Book at all. Next time I’m in downtown Sacramento, I must remember to donate a new copy of The Little SAS Book to the library, and while I’m at it, I might as well throw in a copy of The Little SAS Book for Enterprise Guide.
The case of someone stealing a single copy of a book from a public library isn’t a major crime. A greater concern—at least to authors—is the evidence that electronic copies are being freely pirated. Recently, I ran into a friend who is a student. Looking at her laptop computer, I saw that she was displaying The Little SAS Book. It was a sharp-looking PDF version. Even I don’t have a PDF copy of The Little SAS Book! “Wow,” I said, “Where did you get that?” She sheepishly admitted that it had been given to her by another student. She had neglected to mention this to me because she knew it was an illegal copy, and that I hadn’t been paid a cent for it. Of course, this particular friend has a legal copy (that I gave her), so I’m not bothered by the fact that she now has a second copy even if it is illegal.
What does concern me is the fact that royalties for The Little SAS Book series have been declining, and are down 40% compared to three years ago. During those years we worked hard and published two new editions. So, logically our royalties should be going up, not down. I can’t help wondering if the sales have dropped at least partly because people are using pirated copies instead of legal ones. I’m grateful for the good sales we have had in the past, and I wouldn’t mind people passing around pirated copies if our royalties held steady. But the truth is: I have to pay my bills just like everyone else. The problem of piracy is not unique to me, nor to SAS Press, nor even to books. This is a bigger problem that applies to music and movies too, and you can bet I’ll be watching to see how it turns out.
The Little SAS Book series is on sale 25% off through June 30, 2010.
To order online:
1) Go to support.sas.com/bookstore.
2) Add books to cart and proceed to the checkout.
3) On the checkout page type the following in the comment field at the bottom. “LSBSeries25″
4) Final pricing, including taxes, shipping, promotional discounts will be reflected in your confirmation e-mail.
Here is what reviewers say about these books:
The Little SAS Book for Enterprise Guide 4.2
“It may be a ‘Little Book,’ but I was amazed at how much information about SAS Enterprise Guide 4.2 is included. The tutorials successfully take the reader on a journey covering all the main topics; then the reference section expands on these topics. I’ve been using SAS Enterprise Guide since version 1.1, but while reading this book I was reminded frequently of features that I ought to use more. It has something for everyone!”
Review by Philip R. Holland, Consultant and Author, Holland Numerics Ltd.
The Little SAS Book: A Primer, Fourth Edition
“The Fourth Edition of The Little SAS Book is not only an excellent primer for new SAS users, but it is also a great reference and update for experienced SAS users. The content provides a comprehensive overview of the SAS System in general, and data integration, manipulation, analysis, and reporting within SAS.”
Review by Systems Seminar Consultants, a SAS training and consulting company based in Madison, WI. Click here to read the complete review.
In this posting, I take a break from talking about SAS to talk about the books of the future and the future of books.
I do not own an e-reader. I am a collector of books, good old-fashioned hold-them-in-your-hands-and-turn-the-pages books. My collection includes a copy of Winne the Pooh with a copyright date of 1925 (one year before the book is said to have been first published, something I can’t quite figure out), and a copy of The Norman Rockwell Album, autographed by the artist with a tiny sketch of a dog. I, for one, am going to continue to buy and read paper books.
However, I can see how useful an e-reader would be for reading technical and academic books. And I thoroughly expect to use an e-reader in the future–when the technology is good enough. At SGF 2009, I had the privilege of seeing The Little SAS Book on a Kindle. The result was not impressive. The formatting was pathetic, even distressing in a book where formatting is an important part of communicating the content. The images we had worked so hard to create were missing! Clearly, e-readers have a ways to go…but perhaps not as far as I once thought.
In an article in IEEE Spectrum, March 2010, Jason Heikenfeld discusses the various contenders in the e-reader market and what we can expect to see in the not-so-distant future. Here’s a quote:
“Like the jet pack, it always seems to be a decade away. So why should you believe me now when I tell you that the do-all e-reader will be available in a decade? Read on.”
One of the problems that Lora Delwiche and I face as authors of two books with similar titles (The Little SAS Book and The Little SAS Book for Enterprise Guide) and multiple editions (five of LSB and three of LSBEG) is explaining how the books are different.
