Kevin Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > My name is Kevin Smith. I am a Ph.D. psychologist, and > statistician. I have been monitoring the this list for some time > watching the progress of the application development.
Pleased to meet you. > I have a few thoughts on some of the ideas that Jason mentioned > below. First, reading SAS data sets is not a simple task. SAS > data sets or specific to major version, bit ordering and > operating system (in some cases anyhow). One of the major > problems that I have run in to as a SAS user is that old data > can no longer be read by newer versions of SAS, and thus users > with such data are left with no options. I can see a potential > market for an application which can read such data, but I also > know that the file formats for SAS datasets (even the old ones) > are considered trade secrets. Usually, this just means that it takes a lot of time to figure out how the format works. Thus, to make it work properly you need someone with a lot of time on his hands, and by preference a working copy of each version of SAS whose format you're interested in. In other words, I'd categorize SAS data file formats as "lots of work" not as "impossible", etc. > I assume that getting SPSS data formats is equally as difficult > as SAS doesn't read SPSS data. SPSS published an older version of their data file format on the web several years ago, giving us a head start on that format. Since then they've only made minor changes, so it hasn't been a big problem. > Is what Jason is suggesting really feasible? As far as syntax > files, certainly SAS syntax is just plain text. I don't have a > lot of experience with language parsers but SAS and SPSS aren't > fully comparible in terms of what algorithms are used on a huge > range of functions. Nor is data handled in the same manner, so > I am uncertain how feasible this idea is. [...] This part sounds less plausible to me, too, than understanding the SAS data format. Perhaps we could start a separate ASA project :-) -- Ben Pfaff email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] web: http://benpfaff.org _______________________________________________ pspp-dev mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/pspp-dev
