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SAS® USER PROFILE
SAS® History: For
the past 17 years I have been proud to call myself
a SAS Programmer, Developer, Teacher, Analyst and Project Leader. I currently
work in the SAS Technology Centre at Statistics Canada located in Ottawa.
My team members and I act as internal consultants who specialize in SAS
application development using a wide range of SAS products and technologies.
I have worked on many SAS applications over the years, ranging from generalized
to customized systems using various platforms
(Windows, UNIX and MVS). With approximately 3,000 SAS users at Statistics
Canada, we remain heavily involved in SAS technology.Name: Greg McLean – Customer Value Award Winner ! Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Company: SAS Technology Centre Systems Development Division Statistics Canada Federal Government of Canada In particular, I became involved with and have specialized in SAS/AF® (including SAS Screen Control Language, or SCL) since its early years of inception within the SAS suite of products. It is a very powerful module that I constantly promote throughout the bureau. Because of its graphic capabilities as well as the power of SCL (and other SAS modules), it is the perfect tool for survey processing. Since my introduction to SAS, I have always been a strong advocate for the concept of reuse and generalization. Along with many of my other colleagues, I have developed, tested, documented and incorporated a suite of SAS frameworks into many of the systems that we develop. More recently I have had a keen interest in the concept of grid computing – again sticking to the “re-use and generalization” theme. Using SAS/CONNECT® as the underlying technology, I have created a prototype (also using SAS/AF) to demonstrate the advantages and capabilities of this powerful concept. I have presented this topic on several occasions at such venues as OASUS (Ottawa Area SAS Users Society), Statistics Canada IT Conference and SUGI 31 in San Francisco. Although I still have quite a few years to go until retirement, I plan to continue the promotion of SAS and share the passion that was instilled in me 17 years ago. Pets: Two of my best friends happen to be of the furry kind! Buddie is a toy poodle and Poki is a Pomeranian. Both dogs are loyal, great companions and definitely an important part of our family. Family: I have a wonderful family that always supports me with everything that I do. But living with three women can be a challenge at times! Julie is a great partner as well as a great mom. Our two daughters, Stephanie (14) and Elizabeth (17), always try their best to keep me young and hip. Sports: I have always been athletic and interested in many sports. However, as I have aged and changed so have my preferences. I currently play basketball about three times a week. And of course when the weather is nice I turn into a golf fanatic. Hobbies: I have always loved the outdoors, especially as a kid growing up in Northern Ontario (Sault Ste. Marie). One of my favorite outdoor activities is wilderness or canoe camping. There is nothing like getting away from the busy lifestyle and hustle and bustle of city life. Ideal Weekend: Since I love to travel, my ideal weekend would involve my family, a beach and of course a mai tai. (Favorite destination: Hawaii!) Favorite Food: I have been told that I am a very picky eater. I simply respond that I know what I love – and I do love a good steak! But pizza equally tops my list. If I could do anything (besides being a SAS developer), I would be: This is an easy one... a professional golfer. And of course my official sponsor would be SAS. When I am not working with SAS, I like to: Spend time at home, around the yard or in the garage. Julie has been fascinated with all of the TV shows that deal with home renovation and improvement. Of course, this has also worn off on me. Looks like we may be “flipping” our house soon! SAS Techie Tip: Although I have many tips that I have researched, documented and used over the years, I would simply like to share some advice with other SAS developers and programmers. Like many other languages, SAS always has several ways to accomplish any given task. And as good SAS developers, we typically try to find the best solution. However, the best solution may sometimes be the hardest to maintain or the hardest to understand. Thus, when writing code in SAS, we should always try to find a solution that will solve the current problem while balancing maintainability and standardization. Adopting standard SAS frameworks will almost always pay off in the end. Organizations need to realize that all code developed is an asset. And the more the asset can be leveraged the greater the potential return on investment. I can think of a perfect example to illustrate. When we have new members join our team, we often receive the same reaction when we show them how we develop SAS/AF (SCL) applications. It’s not so much how we use SCL that creates this reaction, but rather the color scheme that we use when writing SCL code. For the longest time we have used the following color scheme: |
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The first reaction seems to always be: “That reminds me of the old mainframe days.” First we try to convince them of the advantages of this color scheme. However, we eventually explain that our ultimate goal is standardization. It may or may not be the best standard, but it is a standard that our entire team understands and uses. And that is the message that I would like to convey to you. Try to develop SAS code in such a way that it can be shared, reused or easily understood by other SAS developers.
To summarize: always think “generalize”! |
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