You can prevent ^= from being changed to NE and || changed to !! on a save of your SAS code.
These are the steps:
Start MeLS
Select menu item Tools-Customize
Then select Filename Extensions (button on right)
Then scroll down to the SAS entry and select it
Then press the edit button
Then note in the lower right hand side the entry for “pre-save macro”
Remove the entry for this (so it is blank like the rest of the entries)
Now press the OK button, then the CLOSE button, then the OK button.
Close and restart MeLS.
This will also disable the process that changes || into !!, as well as changing ^= into NE.
HTH,
Clay