SAS Press» Authorline
Table of Contents |
Previous | Next
Author Interview with Neil Constable
 |
Neil Constable shares his thoughts about his upcoming book SAS Programming for Enterprise Guide Users with Authorline.
- Authorline (AL): What was your motivation for writing your book?
- Neil Constable (NC): It seemed to me that there was currently nowhere for SAS Enterprise Guide users who wanted to get more out of the product to go. They could take training or buy books to start learning SAS programming from scratch, but that meant it would be quite a while before users got any real benefits. The techniques that are in the book are my attempt to answer some of the questions that I have been asked in training classes, without forcing people to learn different ways of doing things that SAS Enterprise Guide already does well.
- (AL): Who are you targeting with your book?
- (NC): SAS Enterprise Guide users who want to go that bit further with the product, or who want to start learning the programming language that lies behind it. SAS programmers who are switching to SAS Enterprise Guide as their main development workbench should also find some value in the book.
- (AL): What features of the book are you especially pleased with?
- (NC): I think the cross reference section at the end turned out well - I will use that myself! Apart from that I am quite pleased with the SQL chapter. SQL is something I have been using since long before I started using SAS, so to have the opportunity to write a tutorial on that was great. It also fits really well with the way that SAS Enterprise Guide does most of its data manipulation.
- (AL): How will your book benefit SAS users?
- (NC): It is aimed at SAS Enterprise Guide users, and the benefit to them will be that they can start to get to more of the power of SAS while still using the interface they are familiar with. They will be able to improve the value of reports and graphs by highlighting significant issues, which will also help to improve the value of SAS to their company. They will be able to make their work more reusable by making better use of SAS macro features, which will make their lives easier too. Perhaps best of all it will help them understand what SAS Enterprise Guide actually does and how they can get more out of it.
- (AL): What did you learn while writing this book that would be important for other authors to know?
- (NC): If you are from the UK, then how to write American English - sometimes through gritted teeth. :-) Seriously, I think the main thing is preparation - make sure as early as you can that you are using the correct forms of words and phrases, and that you are using the SAS approved representation of code, tasks etc. That is the sort of thing that can take a while to fix.
Also think about setting up testing areas so that you can easily try out the techniques you describe against the data the reader will have. You will probably have to try things out quite a few times over the time it takes to write the book.
- (AL): How did you decide to publish with SAS?
- (NC): To be honest I didn't really consider anyone else. I work for SAS, the book is about SAS products, so it seemed the logical choice to make the first approach to SAS Press. They liked the idea so there was no need to look any further.
- (AL): Your book will be going to the printer in just a few weeks. How does it feel to be in the home stretch of such a long project?
- (NC): Great - I am really looking forward to seeing the finished product. At the same time I suddenly find I have spare time again - will have to start thinking about the next book.
- (AL): What advice would you give to potential authors?
- (NC): If it is something that you think you would like to do then do it. The people at SAS Press will help you at all stages: making sure the basic idea is good; guidelines on proposals; templates and tools for writing the book; getting technical and stylistic reviews; plus all the design work.
Do be prepared for it to take over part of your life though!
- (AL): How were you able to balance your time between your career and writing this book?
- (NC): Not so much career and writing because it was a project that I took on outside of my normal work. 9 till 5 I was still a SAS Education Consultant so the writing time really came from weekends and evenings. Fortunately my family was really behind me so they accepted the fact that there were periods when I was focused on writing the book. The fact that book writing time coincided with doing the dishes was pure coincidence. Honest.
- (AL): When you are not writing or consulting, how do you like to spend your free time?
- (NC): ): I read a lot, both fiction and non-fiction, and go to the cinema and theatre quite regularly. We have a dog so taking her for walks is great. I do like to get out and about to see the world during my holidays. Last year my wife and I took the Trans-Siberian express from St. Petersburg to Siberia, then the Trans-Mongolian express through Mongolia to Beijing. A terrific experience.
|
 |
Neil Constable is a Principal Education Consultant at SAS Institute in the United Kingdom, where he has worked since 2002. He applies his extensive knowledge of Base SAS, SAS Enterprise Guide, and the SAS business intelligence tools as an instructor for the programming curriculum and the business intelligence curriculum, which includes SAS Enterprise Guide courses. A frequent presenter at customer user group workshops and the UK User conference, Neil is an Associate Member of the Institute of IT Trainers.
|
Table of Contents |
Previous | Next
