Tag: ebooks

VIEWS News 82 (2026Q2/3) has been published!

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VIEWS News issue 82 has now been published.

This newsletter is the home of Foundation SAS and brings you information about making the most of SAS 9 and Altair SLC. This newsletter issue includes an article from LeRoy Bessler about Donut Charts, Anders Sköllermo discusses quantiles for very large data sets, and there will be a launch of 3 Altair SLC books in Hamburg on 20Aug2026 and you are welcome to join the authors at lunchtime. As usual I have publicised some SAS‑related events for the next few months, and I have also added some more SAS formats, options and functions that you may or may not have come across before, but you might find interesting, and even useful.

If you would like to contribute an article, to re-visit and improve an existing article, or just discuss the possibility of doing so, please feel free to send an email to me at view-uk@hollandnumerics.org.uk or phil@hollandnumerics.org.uk. Publication deadlines are the 14th day of February, May, August and November each year.

To be able to read this and all previous issues you will need to follow these steps:

  1. If you have not already registered on this blog site, go to blog.hollandnumerics.org.uk and register for free membership.
  2. Once successfully registered, click the menu item [Subscriptions for Forums and Features] > [Request access to the VIEWS UK forum] to request free access to the VIEWS UK forum, then add your name and email address to the form before clicking [Send].
  3. On receipt of a request for an existing blog member I will register them for free access to the VIEWS UK forum, and then send them an email to confirm this.
  4. The next time they log onto the blog site they will see VIEWS UK in the forum list, where you will find the latest issue of VIEWS News, forum topics to find the backissues, functions and formats in every published issue, and a tag cloud covering every forum on the site to which you have access, including VIEWS UK and the VIEWS News issues.
  5. They will also be automatically informed of any VIEWS UK updates.

Enjoy!……………..Phil

Pablo and I will be enjoying a “book launch” lunch in Hamburg on 20Aug2026. You are very welcome to join us!

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Philip R Holland and Pablo Orosco Joerger will be at The Locks, Marienhof 6, 23399 Hamburg, a bar and restaurant in northern Hamburg, Germany, between 1200 and 1600 on 20Aug2026 to talk to interested readers about their 3 new books:

  • Advanced Altair SLC
  • Altair SLC for Business Users
  • Altair SLC for Companies
VolumePrimary audienceCore value proposition
Advanced Altair SLCExperienced SAS/SLC programmersTechnical depth: PROC R/PROC IML/PROC PYTHON with full programs, ODS gaps, clinical CDISC programming, non‑standard file reading/writing, systematic SLC vs SAS 9.4 differences
Altair SLC for Business UsersSAS programmers and analysts adopting SLC as their primary toolBroadest practical coverage: batch processing, server access, database access, R/Python, SASjs integration, clinical programming – all with working code
Altair SLC for CompaniesIT managers, architects, decision-makers evaluating migrationBusiness case: cost and capability comparison with SAS 9.4 and Viya, migration planning checklist, database engine coverage, server architecture

All 3 books are available on hollandnumerics.org.uk and Lulu.com as ebooks and paperbacks, if you are unable to join us:

Discounted ebooks will be available to purchase at the venue, either via email or on USB drives.

Discounted paperbacks can also be requested from the authors.

3 new Altair SLC paperbacks are now available on Lulu.com.

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3 new Altair SLC paperbacks have now been published on Lulu.com:

But how do you find them? There are now 3 different links to help you find the paperback books and PDF ebooks you are looking for:

  • Book Table: where you can find the books and ebooks on Lulu.com, but also the discounted ebooks on this blog site. If you have any problems buying ebooks from the blog site, then please email support@hollandnumerics.org.uk, and we will try to fix the issue as quickly as possible.
  • Lulu.com Search: where you can find the books and ebooks on Lulu.com about Altair SLC.
  • Lulu.com Spotlight: where you can find the books and ebooks on Lulu.com by Philip R Holland.

Thank you for supporting independent publishers and authors!

STOP PRESS: Altair SLC 2026 series ebooks published on Lulu.com today!

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3 new Altair SLC ebooks in the Altair SLC 2026 series were published on Lulu.com today, and you can order them via the Book Table:

  • Advanced Altair SLC
    • Experienced SAS/SLC programmers
      • Technical depth: PROC R/PROC IML/PROC PYTHON with full programs, ODS gaps, clinical CDISC programming, non-standard file reading/writing, systematic SLC vs SAS 9.4 differences
  • Altair SLC for Business Users
    • SAS programmers and analysts adopting SLC as their primary tool
      • Broadest practical coverage: batch processing, server access, database access, R/Python, SASjs integration, clinical programming – all with working code
  • Altair SLC for Companies
    • IT managers, architects, decision-makers evaluating migration
      • Business case: cost and capability comparison with SAS 9.4 and Viya, migration planning checklist, database engine coverage, server architecture

For more details about the contents of each book, please download the PDF comparison guide Altair_SLC_2026_Three_Book_Comparison.

Apologies to all my loyal blog members, and thank you for your patience over the last few weeks…

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Those of you who have tried to access my blog site during May and June experienced a very slow response, or, occasionally, no response at all, throughout the day. I have been investigating potential solutions, including using FPM (FastCGI Process Manager) to speed up the PHP programs. I was close to implementing this solution, but had actually made no changes, when the response times suddenly improved dramatically earlier this week. The performance improvements have been very welcome, but I have no explanation for them yet.

I do still intend to implement FPM, but there is less urgency now.

So, while the blog site is user-friendly again, don’t miss out on the pre-publication discounts on the new Altair SLC ebooks at The Book Table. More details can be found at Download pre-publication copies of my new books at discounted prices.

PS. You may have read that Altair SLC has been rebranded by Siemens as Rapidminer SLC, but this name has yet to appear in the software itself or its documentation, so the book titles will remain the same for now!

Saving money buying books directly from the publisher and this blog site (updated 22Jul2026)

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The book prices shown below were correct at time of writing, but should be verified before purchasing. All books can be purchased using links from this blog site at The Book Table.

Note that Amazon is convenient, but usually more expensive, so you will pay more there, and authors will receive lower royalty payments. It is, of course, your choice, but please support independent authors by buying their books on publisher sites, or directly from their blog sites, and save money at the same time!

Publisher
Title
Format		Amazon price £Publisher price £Blog price £
Out of print
Saving Time and Money Using SAS (2007)
PDF ebook——7.50
Lulu.com
Power User’s Guide to SAS Programming (2011)
PDF ebook—3.753.00
Power User’s Guide to SAS Graph Templates (2013)
PDF ebook—3.753.00
Apress
SAS Programming and Data Visualization Techniques (2015)
Paperback(b)48.9949.99—
ebook (various)46.5439.99—
Lulu.com
SAS Programming Experiences, 2nd Edition (2025)
Paperback
(Amazon 60gsm, Publisher 80gsm)		37.4723.85—
PDF ebook—7.507.00
Altair SLC, 2nd Edition (2025)
Paperback(b)
(Amazon 60gsm, Publisher 80gsm)		21.5414.01—
PDF ebook—5.505.00
Advanced Altair SLC, 2026 Edition (2026)
Paperback(b)
(Amazon 60gsm, Publisher 80gsm)		—18.34—
PDF ebook—7.666.50(a), 7.00
Altair SLC for Business Users, 2026 Edition (2026)
Paperback(b)
(Amazon 60gsm, Publisher 80gsm)		—18.21—
PDF ebook—7.666.50(a), 7.00
Altair SLC for Companies, 2026 Edition (2026)
Paperback(b)
(Amazon 60gsm, Publisher 80gsm)		—15.34—
PDF ebook——6.50(a), 7.00

(a) sale price until 31Jul2026

(b) Note that Amazon paperbacks are printed on 60gsm paper to reduce the prices, whereas Publisher paperbacks use 80gsm for higher quality printing. This is a deliberate choice, otherwise Amazon prices would be about 2x Publisher prices if they used 80gsm paper.

Changes to Downloadable and Paid-for Digital Files

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Purchasers of digital files that are paid-for, and NOT free, will now be emailed the files they buy. New versions of already purchased ebooks will have the new version automatically emailed to you, so please make sure your blog profile email address is always up-to-date.

If you download a free file, then that will still require downloading using the emailed link. Please remember to log into your blog profile BEFORE you use the link in that email.

Hopefully these changes will simplify purchasing ebooks from this blog site. Don’t forget to check the Book Table for new and reduced-price books, as it will always include links to the lowest prices available.

Thank you for supporting independent authors!

Joy unbounded revisted! My blog server is up, running again and now I hope it is stable! I have reduced my PDF ebook prices for you until 17Oct2025

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On Thursday 09 October I reported that a server issue had been resolved. However, overnight a new problem surfaced. This has now been fixed too.

So what was the fault?

[Technical description!] The new problem was already there in the Apache2 configuration, but was previously hidden. While I had limited the number of active and spare tasks, I had not limited the number of clients. This has now been added and normal operations have been restored.

When I reported the original issue I promised that all of my ebook downloads would be discounted, and I always to keep my promises, so until 17Oct2025 there will be a 10% discount on all PDF ebook downloads from this site.

See the Book Table page and search for books with “PDF” in their names.

Enjoy………..Phil

Joy unbounded! My blog server is up, running again and stable! Now I can reduce my ebook prices for you for 7 days

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On Monday 29 September I reported a server issue to you on LinkedIn, Twitter/X and Mastodon. I can now report that my server restarted successfully this morning, and not showing any signs of the problem it had.

So what was the fault?

[Technical description!] I use Docker to run individual server containers on my physical server, which are each restarted on a daily basis using a *.yml control file. Over the last weekend in September one of those *.yml files had become corrupted, and the retries parameter, which had previous been “5”, became “5?????” (where ? was a non-printable character). The retries parameter tells the container how many tasks can be generated at a time, which had been 5, but after the corruption became undefined. This resulted in too many tasks, and more than the server could run, being created. The non-printable characters have now been removed, and normal operations have been restored.

When I reported the issue I promised that all of my ebook downloads would be discounted, and I always to keep my promises, so for the next 7 days (ending on 17Oct2025) there will be a 10% discount on all ebook downloads from this site.

See the Book Table page and search for books with “PDF” in their names.

Enjoy………..Phil

Now I am retired, my course notes are less likely to be sold to course attendees, so I have reduced all of my PDF course note ebooks

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I am retired now, so my course notes are less likely to be sold to course attendees. Therefore it makes sense to reduce all of my PDF course note ebooks on Lulu.com to GBP 5.50, and downloads from this site to GBP 5.00:

Remember that, as a SAS Programming member of the blog, you can also access the SAS courses as part of the monthly SAS Programming membership for GBP 5.00 per month, either as topics in the SAS Programming Forum or as LMS courses, via the SAS course – Home Page. SAS Programming membership includes free answers to any SAS-related questions in the SAS Programming Forum.

I always advocate that learning SAS programming requires practice, practice, practice! The SAS Institute provide free, but limited, SAS programming access for training purposes only via SAS On-Demand for Academics. On the other hand, Altair provide free and full SAS programming access for all purposes (including commercial use, but excluding command line and remote access) via the Personal Edition of Altair SLC.

Sale price of downloaded ebooks has been reduced by GBP 1.00 today until 31May2025

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Today I set up new sale prices for downloading the 2nd editions of my latest ebooks (see ‘2nd Edition ebooks of “SAS Programming Experiences” and “Altair SLC” have been published today’).

From today until 31May2025 the sale prices for downloading these ebooks from my blog site will be GBP 1.00 less than usual:

Remember that this sale will end automatically on 31May2025 (UK time)!!

Enjoy………….Phil

2nd Edition ebooks of “SAS Programming Experiences” and “Altair SLC” have been published today

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2nd Edition ebook versions of my 2024 books, “SAS Programming Experiences” and “Altair SLC”, have been published today on Lulu.com and my blog site. Paperback versions will be published shortly on Lulu.com and for global distribution (including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.).

The Second Edition of each book now includes information about both the 2024 and 2025 releases of Altair SLC.

Follow the links below for more details:

Did you download the First Edition ebook from my blog site? If you did, then please find your confirmation email for that ebook, because the download link will now download the Second Edition at no extra cost!!