Altair SLC™ VSCode Extension

This is the official Altair SLC™ VSCode extension, providing the ability to edit and execute programs written in the language of SAS using Altair SLC

Features

• Start an Altair SLC session using a locally installed copy of Altair SLC. Note that Altair SLC is not included with the VSCode extension, this must be separately installed and licensed.
• Submit SAS language programs or snippets to the Altair SLC session for processing.
• View the Altair SLC execution log.
• View generated ODS output.
• Open and view data sets or views available via the Altair SLC session.
  • View metadata (columns, details of indexes and so on).
  • View the data in the data set
  • Apply a filter to records to only subset of records.
• VSCode Notebook support
  • Execute SAS language cells using Altair SLC
  • See execution log and ODS HTML output
• Integration of SLC language server providing
  • Semantic token highlighting
  • Hover support for selected language elements
  • Completion support for selected language elements
  • Code parsing and limited error highlighting

Start an SLC session

In order to start an Altair SLC session it is necessary to create a Connection Profile. A Connection Profile determines how Altair SLC is run, that is, the location of the Altair SLC installation, plus a list of any required startup system options. Multiple connections profiles can be defined, but only one Altair SLC session can be running at once.

The extension will automatically create connection profiles for any existing installations of Altair SLC that exist the first time that it is run. Subsequently new connection profiles can be created that reference either one of the existing installations of Altair SLC, or a custom installation location.

An SLC session can be auto started when the extension is activated. The selection of the connection profile to autostart can be defined at a per-workspace or a per-user level.

Startup System Options

System options can be set at startup by editing the connection profile.

• From the command palette, run the "SLC: Manage SLC Connection Profiles" command.
• At the prompt, select "Edit connection profile"
• In the settings.json editor, add the startupOptions property to the appropriate connection profile. The value of this should be an array of objects, each of which has a name and a value property. The value is always required and is always a string. For "keyword" system options, the name should be the base system option name, and the value should be the option name, with or without the NO prefix as appropriate. For example:

          "startupOptions": [
          {"name": "DATE", "value":"NODATE"},
          {"name": "CAPS", "value":"CAPS"},
          {"name": "OBS", "value":"999"},
        ],
  
  

Autoexec Programs

The Altair SLC VSCode extension also supports autoexec scripts. Note that this is separate from the normal autoexec file support provided by Altair SLC, this is configuration that is part of the connection profile.

An autoexec program can be provided as a text string, or as a reference to a file. Multiple autoexec programs can be provided.

Autoexec programs can be defined by editing the connection profile:

• From the command palette, run the "SLC: Manage SLC Connection Profiles" command.
• At the prompt, select "Edit connection profile"
• In the settings.json editor, add the autoExec property to the appropriate connection profile. The value of this should be an array of objects, each of which has a type property with the value text or file, and then either a text property or a filePath property appropriately. For example:

        "autoExec": [
          {
            "type": "text",
            "text": "%put Hello from autoexec;",
          },
          {
            "type": "file",
            "filePath": ".\\autoexec.sas",
          },
        ]
  

Execute source code and browse results

Use an SLC Notebook

A new SLC notebook file can be created with the "SLC: New SLC Notebook" action.

Executing cells in an SLC notebook will use the same SLC session as executing code from a standard source file. The log and ODS HTML output from executing the cell will be included as output to the cell in the notebook.

SLC Language Server

The SLC VSCode extension includes integration with the SLC language server.

By default, the latest version of the SLC language server is automatically downloaded on starting the VSCode extension. If necessary the language server can be manually updated using the slc.updateLanguageServer command.

The version of language server can be constrained using the slc.languageServerVersion configuration setting. This is a semantic version range expression as defined by the semver npm package. The slc.languageServerPath configuration setting can also be used to use a specific language server executable that is then managed externally.

Telemetry

The SLC VSCode extension include some simple telemetry to gather information on feature usage and errors to help improve the extension. Telemetry is controlled by the standard VSCode telemetry.telemetryLevel user setting, as described here.

Supported Platforms

The Altair SLC VSCode extension and the associated Altair SLC language server is supported on Windows, Linux and MacOS. The Altair SLC language server is supported on the following minimum platform versions.

The language server is made available for Windows x64, and for Linux and MacOS on both x64 and arm64 architectures.

The Altair SLC VSCode extension can be used on any platform supported bs VSCode if the language server is disabled in the configuration settings.

Roadmap

The following functionality is intended for future releases:

• Sorting in data set viewer. Currently it is necessary to use the SAS language to sort the data set (so submit code to SLC that either sorts the data set in place or creates a sorted version of a data set, and then view that)
• Searching in data set viewer. Currently necessary to use the filter capability to find records.
• Altair SLC Hub integration
• Altair RapidMiner Cloud/AI Cloud integration

Support

Support for this extension is provided through the GitHub Issue Tracker.

Legal Notices

Trademarks

Altair SLC™ is a registered trademarks of Altair Engineering, inc. (r) or ® indicates a Community trademark.

SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. ® indicates USA registration.

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owner.

General Notices

Altair Engineering, inc. is not associated in any way with the SAS Institute.

Altair SLC is not the SAS System.

The phrases "SAS", "SAS language", and "language of SAS" used in this document are used to refer to the computer programming language often referred to in any of these ways.

The phrases "SAS program", and "SAS language program" used in this document are used to refer to programs written in the SAS language. These may also be referred to as "SAS scripts", or "SAS language scripts".