Re: 50 Years of SAS
Barry, That is a great bit of history that I am sure many will and are enjoying . Bravo Sir and congratulations to a long and prosperous journey! Warm Regards, Doug . On Oct 9, 2022, at 18:46, Jerome Benting wrote: Bravo SIR .. Used SAS & MXG extensively in my SysProg days. -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of Barry Merrill Sent: Sunday, October 9, 2022 6:26 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: 50 Years of SAS Fifty years ago today, October 9, 1972, I ran my first SAS Program. I left the Navy in June, 1972, and in August, my Psychologist friend, Dr. L. Rogers Taylor, now working at State Farm Automobile HQ in Bloomington, IL, suggested I might find a home there and arranged for an interview. At Purdue in 1966, I had written FORTRAN programs for his dissertation, using pattern recognition techniques, cluster analysis, and vector distance tools from my Master's Research in EE at LARS, the Laboratory for Agricultural Remote Sensing. These tools had not been previously used in his then-new field of Industrial Psychology. His actual application analyzed questionnaires completed by Humble Oil Petroleum Engineers, which were then correlated with a separate data file that identified those Engineers who HAD found oil from those that hadn't, to construct a predictive questionnaire (very successfully, he received accolades from his peers for introducing pattern recognition to them). He arranged for an interview with the Vice President for Data Processing, Dr. Norman Vincent. After completing the required HR forms, my escort very nervously drove me to the Corporate HQ Building; he had never even MET a State Farm Corporate VP, let alone be in a VP's office! I immediately clicked with Norm and met the manager of the brand new "Measurement Unit", Dave Vitek, and then spent the day interviewing members of that group (and being interviewed/evaluated by them). I started Sept 18, 1972 at $13800. In 1972, the state of the art for IBM mainframe computer capacity planning was simple: your company's IBM salesman would visit with your company's vice president for data processing, hand him the contract for a newer and faster and larger computer for only a few million dollars. Dave Vitek had attended (the first?) Boole and Babbage User Group (BBUG) annual meeting, where the idea of actually measuring the computer system utilization was THE topic. Dave decided that rather than just trusting the IBM salesman as your capacity planner, State Farm should be able to figure out how measure its own computers, and Dave got Norm to fund a ten-person Measurement Unit for three years for a feasibility study. Steve Cullen had drafted an excellent attack plan to investigate the four possible tools, SMF Accounting, Software Monitors, Hardware Monitors, and Simulation, and in short order, we had Kommand/PACES for accounting, Software Monitors (SYSTEM LEAP and PROGRAM LEAP), Hardware Monitors (TESDATA XRAY), and Simulation (SAM). But, Kommand was only for billing, with only a few canned reports, and with no tool for data extraction, Denny Maguire had started to write PL/1 programs to extract fields directly from the raw SMF records. When he mentioned he wanted to plot his data. I called Purdue's LARS and they sent me the FORTRAN "PLOT" subroutine that I had written there that did simple plots on line printers, but could also print detailed graphics on CalComp paper plotters. Denny was still having problems reading the complex data in SMF records, so my PLOT program was still untested, when, in the September, 1972, Datamation, I found this announcement: "The Institute of Statistics at North Carolina State University announces the availability of the Statistical Analysis System, a package of 100,000 lines, one third each in Fortran, PL/1 and Assembler, that does printing, analysis and plotting of data. The package is available, including source code, for $100.00." I wrote for information, and got typical university documentation, with some pages dittoed, some pages typed, some printed, each on paper of a different color, but I immediately realized the power and simplicity and the beauty of the SAS language and especially of power of its INPUT statement which could clearly handle the complexity of SMF data. However, in their list of supported data field formats, there was no reference to support for Packed Decimal fields. You only need to get seven bytes into an SMF record to encounter a Packed Decimal field, so I called the Institute of Statistics at North Carolina State University, and was connected with Tony Barr, the designer of the SAS language and the author of the SAS compiler about support for that data type. In his North Carolina accent, he replied, "Wheall, we haven't got around to documenting it yet, but if you type in P D 4 Point, it'll work jest fine",
Re: 50 Years of SAS
Bravo SIR .. Used SAS & MXG extensively in my SysProg days. -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List On Behalf Of Barry Merrill Sent: Sunday, October 9, 2022 6:26 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: 50 Years of SAS Fifty years ago today, October 9, 1972, I ran my first SAS Program. I left the Navy in June, 1972, and in August, my Psychologist friend, Dr. L. Rogers Taylor, now working at State Farm Automobile HQ in Bloomington, IL, suggested I might find a home there and arranged for an interview. At Purdue in 1966, I had written FORTRAN programs for his dissertation, using pattern recognition techniques, cluster analysis, and vector distance tools from my Master's Research in EE at LARS, the Laboratory for Agricultural Remote Sensing. These tools had not been previously used in his then-new field of Industrial Psychology. His actual application analyzed questionnaires completed by Humble Oil Petroleum Engineers, which were then correlated with a separate data file that identified those Engineers who HAD found oil from those that hadn't, to construct a predictive questionnaire (very successfully, he received accolades from his peers for introducing pattern recognition to them). He arranged for an interview with the Vice President for Data Processing, Dr. Norman Vincent. After completing the required HR forms, my escort very nervously drove me to the Corporate HQ Building; he had never even MET a State Farm Corporate VP, let alone be in a VP's office! I immediately clicked with Norm and met the manager of the brand new "Measurement Unit", Dave Vitek, and then spent the day interviewing members of that group (and being interviewed/evaluated by them). I started Sept 18, 1972 at $13800. In 1972, the state of the art for IBM mainframe computer capacity planning was simple: your company's IBM salesman would visit with your company's vice president for data processing, hand him the contract for a newer and faster and larger computer for only a few million dollars. Dave Vitek had attended (the first?) Boole and Babbage User Group (BBUG) annual meeting, where the idea of actually measuring the computer system utilization was THE topic. Dave decided that rather than just trusting the IBM salesman as your capacity planner, State Farm should be able to figure out how measure its own computers, and Dave got Norm to fund a ten-person Measurement Unit for three years for a feasibility study. Steve Cullen had drafted an excellent attack plan to investigate the four possible tools, SMF Accounting, Software Monitors, Hardware Monitors, and Simulation, and in short order, we had Kommand/PACES for accounting, Software Monitors (SYSTEM LEAP and PROGRAM LEAP), Hardware Monitors (TESDATA XRAY), and Simulation (SAM). But, Kommand was only for billing, with only a few canned reports, and with no tool for data extraction, Denny Maguire had started to write PL/1 programs to extract fields directly from the raw SMF records. When he mentioned he wanted to plot his data. I called Purdue's LARS and they sent me the FORTRAN "PLOT" subroutine that I had written there that did simple plots on line printers, but could also print detailed graphics on CalComp paper plotters. Denny was still having problems reading the complex data in SMF records, so my PLOT program was still untested, when, in the September, 1972, Datamation, I found this announcement: "The Institute of Statistics at North Carolina State University announces the availability of the Statistical Analysis System, a package of 100,000 lines, one third each in Fortran, PL/1 and Assembler, that does printing, analysis and plotting of data. The package is available, including source code, for $100.00." I wrote for information, and got typical university documentation, with some pages dittoed, some pages typed, some printed, each on paper of a different color, but I immediately realized the power and simplicity and the beauty of the SAS language and especially of power of its INPUT statement which could clearly handle the complexity of SMF data. However, in their list of supported data field formats, there was no reference to support for Packed Decimal fields. You only need to get seven bytes into an SMF record to encounter a Packed Decimal field, so I called the Institute of Statistics at North Carolina State University, and was connected with Tony Barr, the designer of the SAS language and the author of the SAS compiler about support for that data type. In his North Carolina accent, he replied, "Wheall, we haven't got around to documenting it yet, but if you type in P D 4 Point, it'll work jest fine", so I convinced State Farm to risk the 1972 purchase price of $100 for the SAS package. Starting in 1964, Tony Barr and Dr. Jim Goodnight ha
Re: 50 Years of SAS
Great stuff Barry. Brings back memories of the IBM world in the seventies. Tony Barr went on to found Barr Systems. Mr. Barr's history of SAS is here: http://www.barrsystems.com/about_us/the_company/sas_history.asp Mike Shaw MVS/QuickRef Support Group Chicago-Soft, Ltd. On Sun, Oct 9, 2022 at 12:26 PM Barry Merrill wrote: > Fifty years ago today, October 9, 1972, I ran my first SAS Program. > > > I left the Navy in June, 1972, and in August, my Psychologist friend, > Dr. L. Rogers Taylor, now working at State Farm Automobile HQ in > Bloomington, IL, suggested I might find a home there and arranged for > an interview. At Purdue in 1966, I had written FORTRAN programs for > his dissertation, using pattern recognition techniques, cluster > analysis, and vector distance tools from my Master's Research in EE at > LARS, the Laboratory for Agricultural Remote Sensing. These tools had > not been previously used in his then-new field of Industrial > Psychology. His actual application analyzed questionnaires completed by > Humble Oil Petroleum Engineers, which were then correlated with a > separate data file that identified those Engineers who HAD found oil > from those that hadn't, to construct a predictive questionnaire (very > successfully, he received accolades from his peers for introducing > pattern recognition to them). He arranged for an interview with the > Vice President for Data Processing, Dr. Norman Vincent. > > After completing the required HR forms, my escort very nervously drove > me to the Corporate HQ Building; he had never even MET a State Farm > Corporate VP, let alone be in a VP's office! I immediately clicked > with Norm and met the manager of the brand new "Measurement Unit", > Dave Vitek, and then spent the day interviewing members of that group > (and being interviewed/evaluated by them). I started Sept 18, 1972 > at $13800. > > In 1972, the state of the art for IBM mainframe computer capacity > planning was simple: your company's IBM salesman would visit with your > company's vice president for data processing, hand him the contract > for a newer and faster and larger computer for only a few million > dollars. Dave Vitek had attended (the first?) Boole and Babbage User > Group (BBUG) annual meeting, where the idea of actually measuring the > computer system utilization was THE topic. Dave decided that rather > than just trusting the IBM salesman as your capacity planner, State > Farm should be able to figure out how measure its own computers, and > Dave got Norm to fund a ten-person Measurement Unit for three years > for a feasibility study. > > Steve Cullen had drafted an excellent attack plan to investigate the > four possible tools, SMF Accounting, Software Monitors, Hardware > Monitors, and Simulation, and in short order, we had Kommand/PACES for > accounting, Software Monitors (SYSTEM LEAP and PROGRAM LEAP), Hardware > Monitors (TESDATA XRAY), and Simulation (SAM). But, Kommand was only > for billing, with only a few canned reports, and with no tool for data > extraction, Denny Maguire had started to write PL/1 programs to > extract fields directly from the raw SMF records. When he mentioned he > wanted to plot his data. I called Purdue's LARS and they sent me the > FORTRAN "PLOT" subroutine that I had written there that did simple > plots on line printers, but could also print detailed graphics on > CalComp paper plotters. Denny was still having problems reading the > complex data in SMF records, so my PLOT program was still untested, > when, in the September, 1972, Datamation, I found this announcement: >"The Institute of Statistics at North Carolina State University >announces the availability of the Statistical Analysis System, a >package of 100,000 lines, one third each in Fortran, PL/1 and >Assembler, that does printing, analysis and plotting of data. The >package is available, including source code, for $100.00." > > I wrote for information, and got typical university documentation, > with some pages dittoed, some pages typed, some printed, each on paper > of a different color, but I immediately realized the power and > simplicity and the beauty of the SAS language and especially of power > of its INPUT statement which could clearly handle the complexity of > SMF data. However, in their list of supported data field formats, > there was no reference to support for Packed Decimal fields. You only > need to get seven bytes into an SMF record to encounter a Packed > Decimal field, so I called the Institute of Statistics at North > Carolina State University, and was connected with Tony Barr, the > designer of the SAS language and the author of the SAS compiler about > support for that data type. In his North Carolina accent, he replied, > "Wheall, we haven't got around to documenting it yet, but if you type > in P D 4 Point, it'll
50 Years of SAS
Fifty years ago today, October 9, 1972, I ran my first SAS Program. I left the Navy in June, 1972, and in August, my Psychologist friend, Dr. L. Rogers Taylor, now working at State Farm Automobile HQ in Bloomington, IL, suggested I might find a home there and arranged for an interview. At Purdue in 1966, I had written FORTRAN programs for his dissertation, using pattern recognition techniques, cluster analysis, and vector distance tools from my Master's Research in EE at LARS, the Laboratory for Agricultural Remote Sensing. These tools had not been previously used in his then-new field of Industrial Psychology. His actual application analyzed questionnaires completed by Humble Oil Petroleum Engineers, which were then correlated with a separate data file that identified those Engineers who HAD found oil from those that hadn't, to construct a predictive questionnaire (very successfully, he received accolades from his peers for introducing pattern recognition to them). He arranged for an interview with the Vice President for Data Processing, Dr. Norman Vincent. After completing the required HR forms, my escort very nervously drove me to the Corporate HQ Building; he had never even MET a State Farm Corporate VP, let alone be in a VP's office! I immediately clicked with Norm and met the manager of the brand new "Measurement Unit", Dave Vitek, and then spent the day interviewing members of that group (and being interviewed/evaluated by them). I started Sept 18, 1972 at $13800. In 1972, the state of the art for IBM mainframe computer capacity planning was simple: your company's IBM salesman would visit with your company's vice president for data processing, hand him the contract for a newer and faster and larger computer for only a few million dollars. Dave Vitek had attended (the first?) Boole and Babbage User Group (BBUG) annual meeting, where the idea of actually measuring the computer system utilization was THE topic. Dave decided that rather than just trusting the IBM salesman as your capacity planner, State Farm should be able to figure out how measure its own computers, and Dave got Norm to fund a ten-person Measurement Unit for three years for a feasibility study. Steve Cullen had drafted an excellent attack plan to investigate the four possible tools, SMF Accounting, Software Monitors, Hardware Monitors, and Simulation, and in short order, we had Kommand/PACES for accounting, Software Monitors (SYSTEM LEAP and PROGRAM LEAP), Hardware Monitors (TESDATA XRAY), and Simulation (SAM). But, Kommand was only for billing, with only a few canned reports, and with no tool for data extraction, Denny Maguire had started to write PL/1 programs to extract fields directly from the raw SMF records. When he mentioned he wanted to plot his data. I called Purdue's LARS and they sent me the FORTRAN "PLOT" subroutine that I had written there that did simple plots on line printers, but could also print detailed graphics on CalComp paper plotters. Denny was still having problems reading the complex data in SMF records, so my PLOT program was still untested, when, in the September, 1972, Datamation, I found this announcement: "The Institute of Statistics at North Carolina State University announces the availability of the Statistical Analysis System, a package of 100,000 lines, one third each in Fortran, PL/1 and Assembler, that does printing, analysis and plotting of data. The package is available, including source code, for $100.00." I wrote for information, and got typical university documentation, with some pages dittoed, some pages typed, some printed, each on paper of a different color, but I immediately realized the power and simplicity and the beauty of the SAS language and especially of power of its INPUT statement which could clearly handle the complexity of SMF data. However, in their list of supported data field formats, there was no reference to support for Packed Decimal fields. You only need to get seven bytes into an SMF record to encounter a Packed Decimal field, so I called the Institute of Statistics at North Carolina State University, and was connected with Tony Barr, the designer of the SAS language and the author of the SAS compiler about support for that data type. In his North Carolina accent, he replied, "Wheall, we haven't got around to documenting it yet, but if you type in P D 4 Point, it'll work jest fine", so I convinced State Farm to risk the 1972 purchase price of $100 for the SAS package. Starting in 1964, Tony Barr and Dr. Jim Goodnight had collaborated to develop an ANOVA routine for the Department of Agriculture. Tony had been an IBM developer of the data base for the cold war's Distant Early Warning (DEW line) radar system, and Jim was a well-known statistician. Both recognized the weakness of the existing stat packages: they were
