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 
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