Also because no one wants to put their neck out on a chopping block to suggest R without technical support and the like. If you use SAS, there's a cascade of blame available, but it's not immediately available for R.
On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 10:36 AM, Bryan <thespamho...@gmail.com> wrote: > My apologies, this obviously doubles as my "for registration purposes" > account and so I don't often send from it - I was not intentionally being so > secretive : ) > > At any rate, I completely agree, but of course it's a reciprocal > relationship. The software is written in SAS because that's what the > organizations use, the organizations use SAS because that's what the > programs are written in... For better or worse, SAS's integration in big > bureaucracies is the main thing that keeps it competitive in the marketplace > and viable. There aren't a lot of other contexts in which their pricing > structure would work. > > Bryan > > On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 12:48 PM, Frank E Harrell Jr < > f.harr...@vanderbilt.edu> wrote: > >> spam me wrote: >> >>> I've actually used AHRQ's software to create Inpatient Quality Indicator >>> reports. I can confirm pretty much what we already know; it is >>> inefficient. >>> Running on about 1.8 - 2 million cases, it would take just about a whole >>> day >>> to run the entire process from start to finish. That isn't all processing >>> time and includes some time for the analyst to check results between >>> substeps, but I still knew that my day was full when I was working on IQI >>> reports. >>> >>> >>> >>> To be fair though, there are a lot of other factors (beside efficiency >>> considerations) that go into AHRQ's program design. First, there are a >>> lot >>> of changes to that software every year. In some cases it is easier and >>> less >>> error prone to hardcode a few points in the data so that it is blatantly >>> obvious what to change next year should another analyst need to do so. >>> Second, >>> the organizations that use this software often require transparency and >>> may >>> not have high level programmers on staff. Writing code so that it is >>> accessible, editable, and interpretable by intermediate level programmers >>> or >>> analysts is a plus. Third, given that IQI reports are often produced on a >>> yearly basis, there's no real need to sacrifice clarity, etc. for >>> efficiency >>> - you're only doing this process once a year. >>> >>> >>> >>> There are other points that could be made, but the main idea is I don't >>> think it's fair to hold this software up, out of context, as an example of >>> SAS's (or even AHRQs) inefficiencies. I agree that SAS syntax is nowhere >>> near as elegant or as powerful as R from a programming standpoint, that's >>> why after 7 years of using SAS I switched to R. But comparing the two at >>> that level is like a racing a Ferrari and a Bentley to see which is the >>> better car. >>> >> >> Dear Anonymous, >> >> Nice points. I would just add that it would be better if >> government-sponsored projects would result in software that could be run >> without expensive licenses. >> >> Thanks >> Frank >> >> >>> [[alternative HTML version deleted]] >>> >>> ______________________________________________ >>> R-help@r-project.org mailing list >>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help >>> PLEASE do read the posting guide >>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html >>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. >>> >>> >> >> -- >> Frank E Harrell Jr Professor and Chair School of Medicine >> Department of Biostatistics Vanderbilt University >> > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
