An archeological breakthrough: Early SAS conference proceedings

In the computer software industry, 35 years is like an eon.

I mean, 35 years ago, the computing power that I carry around within my mobile phone didn't even exist all in one place; but if it did, it would have filled an entire building.

That's why the recent posting of SAS conference papers from 1976-1996 (on sasCommunity.org) is a little bit like uncovering cave paintings from a bygone era. They might not yield information about advanced technology we can use today, but they sure can teach us a lot about where we've been.

I'm proud to say that I wrote one of the papers that appears in this archive. It's at the tail-end of the covered range: SUGI 21 in 1996. The topic is implementing native help for SAS/AF applications on OS/2 and Windows. That paper established me as one of the world's top experts in the subject for a little while, and I received questions on the topic for maybe 5 years after its publication. But the interest has died off since those days, and I have to admit that I feel relieved about that.

Congratulations to Rich La Valley and the sasCommunity.org team for bringing this content together. The SAS Global Users Group (like SAS itself) is rich with "institutional history", and the availability of these proceedings is a great way to show that off.