Good evening, I have been asked to investigate the pros and cons of using SAS vs. R in a web application. Either SAS or R would be the engine used to make some very simple calculations and to produce graphs, preferably in png format. The advantages of R are pretty obvious as there would be no licensing issues. The only drawback I can see is that when calling it in batch (using R CMD BATCH), a DOS window appears. Thus I have some basic questions: a) Is it possible to have R operate in the background without the DOS window appear? How? b) Is it correct that there will be no licensing issues? c) What would be an efficient way to run it? I am thinking of having R running in the client's local machine and upload the results to a central server. If using SAS, would the model described in c) above be the best way to design it, or would it be better to upload the raw data to the server and have SAS perform the calculations there. Would this option require a multi-user SAS license? (I know, I should check with SAS Institute, but I thought I'd ask anyway. Someone in the list may have done something similar). Thanks in advance for any suggestions. Carlos Alzola [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
Carlos, The last time I checked the SAS license for web use was $25,000 per year. R costs $0 per century. Still interested in SAS? Not sure about your question about 'DOS window'. R on a web server interacts with your browser and doesn't open other windows. There are several online demos of R on web servers. Frank Carlos Alzola wrote:> Good evening, > > I have been asked to investigate the pros and cons of using SAS vs. R in a web application. Either SAS or R would be the engine used to make some very simple calculations and to produce graphs, preferably in png format. > > The advantages of R are pretty obvious as there would be no licensing issues. The only drawback I can see is that when calling it in batch (using R CMD BATCH), a DOS window appears. Thus I have some basic questions: > > a) Is it possible to have R operate in the background without the DOS window appear? How? > b) Is it correct that there will be no licensing issues? > c) What would be an efficient way to run it? I am thinking of having R running in the client's local machine and upload the results to a central server. > > If using SAS, would the model described in c) above be the best way to design it, or would it be better to upload the raw data to the server and have SAS perform the calculations there. Would this option require a multi-user SAS license? (I know, I should check with SAS Institute, but I thought I'd ask anyway. Someone in the list may have done something similar). > > Thanks in advance for any suggestions. > > Carlos Alzola > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at 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
You would normally have R or SAS run on the server, not on the client machine so whether it opens a window or not makes no difference. The window is not on the client's machine anyways. The client only has a browser.>From within R see ?Rscript and ?systemOn Tue, Sep 8, 2009 at 11:19 PM, Carlos Alzola<calzola at cox.net> wrote:> Good evening, > > I have been asked to investigate the pros and cons of using SAS vs. R in a web application. Either SAS or R would be the engine used to make some very simple calculations and to produce graphs, preferably in png format. > > The advantages of R are pretty obvious as there would be no licensing issues. The only drawback I can see is that when calling it in batch (using R CMD BATCH), a DOS window appears. Thus I have some basic questions: > > a) Is it possible to have R operate in the background without the DOS window appear? How? > b) Is it correct that there will be no licensing issues? > c) What would be an efficient way to run it? I am thinking of having R running in the client's local machine and upload the results to a central server. > > If using SAS, would the model described in c) above be the best way to design it, or would it be better to upload the raw data to the server and have SAS perform the calculations there. Would this option require a multi-user SAS license? (I know, I should check with SAS Institute, but I thought I'd ask anyway. Someone in the list may have done something similar). > > Thanks in advance for any suggestions. > > Carlos Alzola > ? ? ? ?[[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at 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. >