I'm reluctant to push the thread much further, but I wanted to add that I
find STATA much easier to teach (and learn) than SAS. I've used both
packages for many years and now teach them both to public health grad
students here at U Minn. My sense is that students are much quicker to STATA
than SAS. Those with prior SAS experience are often amazed at STATA's
intuitive capabilties, especially (!) data management stuff. One critical
distinction is STATA's documentation, help files, and this listserve. Ever
searched for help on "tabulate" or "put" in SAS, or tried to buy the right
SAS text to explain it? I like SAS, especially Proc Mixed, but its learning
curve is too steep and the examples are terrible. Someday I'd like to
empirically test my sense of all of this, but even without such data I'd
still bet the farm that students (and employees) will prefer STATA to SAS.
- Michael Oakes
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