Co-developer of the SAS System and co-founder of SAS Institute Inc., Sall has made extensive programming contributions in econometrics, time series, and matrix algebra. Born in Rockford, Illinois, he is an American software developer and businessman. He has been a partial owner of SAS Institute, owning about 1/3 of the company, while James Goodnight owned the other 2/3. Sall received a Bachelor of Arts in history from Beloit College and a master's degree in economics from Northern Illinois University. He met business partner James Goodnight as a graduate student at North Carolina State University.
He received an honorary doctorate from NC State in 2003 and has served as a member of the NC State University Board of Trustees. In 1973, Sall joined the SAS project that was then in progress, having been conceived by Anthony J. Barr in 1966, making extensive programming contributions in econometrics, time series, and matrix algebra. Other participants in the early years included Caroll G. Perkins, Jolayne W. Service, and Jane T. Helwig. Perkins made programming contributions, while Service and Helwig created the early documentation.
In 1976, he joined Anthony James Barr, Goodnight, and Jane Helwig in founding SAS Institute Inc., now believed to be the largest privately held software maker in the world. SAS's main and original product was the SAS software package used in statistical analysis, consisting of numerous modules that ran on IBM mainframe computers.
In addition to the usual mainframe practice of writing and submitting programs in batch, Sall and his colleagues offered the option—somewhat novel at the time—of a windowed programming environment. In this environment, the program being written or edited appeared in one window, the program output appeared in another window, and the program log appeared in a third window.
