1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Time-stamp: <2010-08-29 15:12:21 blp>
3 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000, 2008, 2009, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end for copying conditions.
6 Please send PSPP bug reports to bug-gnu-pspp@gnu.org.
8 Changes from 0.7.3 to 0.7.5:
10 * The MRSETS command is now implemented.
12 * SAVE TRANSLATE is now implemented, with initial support for saving
13 data in comma-separated value and tab-delimited formats.
15 * The PRESERVE and RESTORE commands are now implemented.
17 Changes from 0.7.2 to 0.7.3:
19 * Charts are now produced with Cairo and Pango, instead of libplot.
20 Without them, the new graphing features will not work. If you do
21 not have Cairo and Pango installed, you must run `configure' with
24 * The new "cairo" output driver supports output in PostScript, PDF,
25 and SVG formats. Its functionality is a superset of that of the
26 "postscript" driver, which has been removed. You must have Cairo
27 and Pango installed to build the "cairo" driver.
29 Changes from 0.7.1 to 0.7.2:
31 * Updated Perl module interface.
33 * Value labels for long string variables are now supported.
35 * Missing values for long string variables are now supported.
37 Changes from 0.7.0 to 0.7.1:
39 * Added a perl module to facilitate reading and writing of pspp system
40 files from perl programs.
42 Changes from 0.6.2-pre6 to 0.7.0:
44 * Custom variable and data file attributes are now supported.
45 Commands VARIABLE ATTRIBUTE and DATAFILE ATTRIBUTE have been added
46 for setting and clear attributes. Support for attributes has also
47 been added to commands that read and write system files, such as
48 SAVE and GET, as well as to the DISPLAY command.
50 * Numererous improvements to the Graphical User Interface have
51 made. Notable improvements include:
53 - Non-Ascii characters in strings, labels and variable names are
56 - A "Split Window" function is available, which makes it easier to
57 see different parts of a large data file.
59 - Data files can now be opened by specifing their name as the first
60 argument. This means that on a properly configured desktop, double
61 clicking on an icon will open the file.
64 * New statistical procedures:
69 NPAR TESTS now supports the WILCOXON and SIGN subcommands.
71 The CROSSTABS command has been completely re-implemented to fix numerous bugs.
73 * Three new commands to combine data files have been added: MATCH FILES,
76 * A tutorial chapter has been added to the user manual.
78 Changes from 0.6.1 to 0.6.2
82 - Dutch, thanks to Harry Thijssen.
84 - Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Michel Boaventura.
86 Thanks for translations are also due to the coordinators at
87 translationproject.org.
89 * Statistical bug fixes:
91 - REGRESSION: Report correct standard error of the estimate (bug
94 - T-TEST: Report correct significance of paired sample T-test in
95 the common case (bug #26936) and corner cases. Thanks to Mike
96 Griffiths and Matej Cepl for reporting these bugs.
98 * Build fixes and changes:
100 - Fix build with GTK+ 2.17.4 and later.
102 - Make running "make" after running "configure" with different
103 settings reliably rebuild version.c.
105 - Cygwin and MinGW build fixes.
107 - Fixes for building with recent gnulib.
109 - The Makefile now honors two new variables, PSPP_LDFLAGS and
110 PSPPIRE_LDFLAGS, that affect linking of the PSPP and PSPPIRE
111 binaries, respectively. This makes building easier for some
114 - Fixes for "configure --enable-relocatable" (bug #25508).
116 * Data file bug fixes and changes:
118 - Fix reading text data files that contain a mix of white space
119 and commas. Now "a ,b" is treated as two fields containing "a"
120 and "b"; previously it was treated as three, with an empty field
123 - Fix writing corrupted .sav files on Windows.
125 - Fix writing variable labels longer than 252 bytes to save files.
126 Thanks to Robert Westlund for reporting this bug.
128 - Fix writing corrupted .por files (bug #26034).
130 - Fix reading .por files whose initial lines are not padded out
131 with spaces as expected.
133 - PSPP will no longer issue warnings about some .sav file records
134 or values that it does not understand. These warnings were
135 harmless, but needlessly alarmed some users.
137 - Fix crash reading empty string fields from PostgreSQL databases.
139 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
141 - Users may now control precision of output statistics. Instead
142 of hard coding the width and decimals of output numbers, respect
143 the default format in most instances. Counts are now normally
144 displayed with the format of the weight variable, if any.
146 - Fix crash when an INSERT command specifies the name of a file
147 that does not exist (bug #24569).
149 - Fix crash when CROSSTABS specifies a long-string variable (bugs
152 - Fix crash drawing pie charts with many segments.
154 - Fix crash when NUMERIC specifies an invalid format.
156 * PSPPIRE bug fixes and changes:
158 - On Windows, write the output file to the user's home directory
159 instead of the current directory, to better match user
162 - Some data editor fixes.
166 - Fix typo in BINOMIAL section of user manual (bug #25892).
168 Changes from 0.6.0 to 0.6.1:
170 * Statistical bug fixes:
172 - Report correct standardized regression coefficients in linear
173 regression output (bug #23567).
175 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
177 - Avoid crash with pie charts (bug #24014).
179 - Don't append % to count totals (bug #24003).
181 - Don't crash on bad input (bug #24031).
183 - Don't crash if "end data." is not left aligned (bug #24115).
185 - Change default workspace value to 64 MB, to avoid unnecessary
186 disk accesses on modern machines.
190 - Add ".sav" or ".por" suffix to filename when saving with Save_As
193 - Make it possible to reopen the output window on Windows (bug
196 - A POSIX regular expression library is now included and used
197 automatically if the host does not have one or has one that is
200 * Build fixes and changes:
202 - Work around bug in GSL that prevented build with recent GCC
203 versions without manually adding -fgnu89-inline to CFLAGS.
205 - Also warn about missing prerequisites as we encounter them (bug
208 - Distribute necessary files to allow users working from the
209 distributed tarball to configure with --enable-gui-tools.
211 - Append $(EXEEXT_FOR_BUILD) to output file name when building
212 q2c, fixing build problems on Windows.
214 - GSL 1.8 or later is now required.
216 - Build errors with --enable-relocatable were fixed.
218 * The German translations were removed, since native German speakers
219 found them too poor to be useful.
221 Changes from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0:
223 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
224 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
226 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE. This
227 interface allows you to enter data and variable definitions
228 interactively. Commands may be executed in syntax form, or by
229 using the interactive dialog boxes available from the dropdown
232 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
235 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
239 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
240 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
241 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
243 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
244 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
245 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
247 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
248 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
250 Statistical procedure changes:
252 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
253 via least-squares estimation.
255 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
256 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
258 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
261 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
262 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
264 User interface changes:
266 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
267 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
269 * PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
272 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
273 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
274 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
277 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
278 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
279 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
280 executed as if `+' had been specified.
282 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
283 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
284 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
286 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
287 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
288 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
289 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
294 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
295 manual for a full description of the available options.
297 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
298 "make install" will do this for you.
300 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
301 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
303 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
304 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
305 Previously, by default output was written only to file
306 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
307 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
312 - This driver now supports charts in output. Charts are written
313 as separate files that the main output file refers to. By
314 default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
315 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
317 - Configurations are provided that use VT100 (and xterm)
318 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
319 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
323 - The default paper size is now determined using the PAPERSIZE
324 environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale category on
325 systems that support it. If these are not set, the default is
326 now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the default,
327 set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
329 - Font metrics are now read from AFM files, instead of
330 Groff-format metrics files. PostScript fonts can now be
333 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
334 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install
335 AFM files for the standard PostScript fonts, including the
336 ones that the PostScript driver uses by default.
338 - Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
339 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
340 longer needed, or supported.
342 - The PostScript prologue is no longer obtained from the
343 "ps-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file is
344 no longer needed, or supported.
348 - The HTML prologue is no longer obtained from the
349 "html-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file
350 is no longer needed, or supported.
352 Command language changes:
354 * The following commands are new:
356 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files and
357 text data files. It will be extended later to read other
358 types of foreign data.
360 - CD, to change the current directory.
362 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
364 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
367 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
369 - CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
371 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
374 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
376 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
378 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
380 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
382 * PSPP now supports very long string variables (over 255 bytes
385 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
387 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
388 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
389 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
391 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
392 re-implemented in a later release:
394 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
400 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
401 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
402 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
404 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
405 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
407 "Scratch files", a new PSPP extension:
409 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
410 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
411 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
412 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
415 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
416 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
417 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
419 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
420 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
421 reassigned to new files.
423 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
424 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
425 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
426 documentation on those particular commands.
430 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
431 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
432 format of these files.
434 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
435 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
436 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
437 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
440 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
441 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
442 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
443 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
444 native floating point format.
446 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
447 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
448 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
450 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
451 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
453 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
454 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
455 subcommands has been added.
457 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
458 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
459 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
462 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
463 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
465 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
466 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
467 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
471 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
472 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
475 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
476 have been extensively revised and improved.
478 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
481 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
483 Changes in build dependencies:
485 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
488 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
489 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
490 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
492 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
494 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
496 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
498 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
506 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
507 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
510 * T-TEST (re-written).
512 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
513 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
516 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
517 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
518 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
519 third-party software.
521 * SET EPOCH implemented.
523 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
526 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
528 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
529 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
530 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
532 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
533 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
535 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
536 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
538 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
539 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
540 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
543 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
544 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
547 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
550 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
553 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
554 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
555 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
557 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
559 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
561 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
564 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
565 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
568 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
569 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
571 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
575 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
578 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
579 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
581 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
582 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
584 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
587 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
590 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
593 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
594 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
595 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
597 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
599 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
601 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
605 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
607 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
611 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
612 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
614 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
616 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
618 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
622 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
624 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
626 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
627 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
629 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
630 didn't like being the last command in a file.
632 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
633 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
634 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
635 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
637 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
638 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
639 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
641 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
642 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
643 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
645 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
646 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
647 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
650 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
651 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
654 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
655 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
657 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
658 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
659 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
661 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
662 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
663 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
665 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
666 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
667 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
670 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
671 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
674 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
675 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
677 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
680 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
681 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
682 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
684 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
685 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
689 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
690 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
692 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
693 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
694 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
696 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
698 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
702 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
704 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
706 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
707 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
709 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
711 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
712 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
714 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
715 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
717 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
718 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
721 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
722 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
727 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
728 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
729 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
731 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
735 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
737 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
738 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
741 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
742 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
743 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
745 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
747 Procedures now implemented:
748 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
750 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
753 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
754 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
765 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
766 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
769 New command-line features:
770 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
771 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
772 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
773 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
774 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
776 Operator LAG is now implemented.
778 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
780 Table output manager completely rewritten.
782 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
783 reinstall your `devices' file.
785 New output driver for HTML.
787 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
789 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
791 Added Texinfo documentation for:
792 * PSPP system file format
793 * PSPP portable file format
794 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
797 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
798 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
800 Changes for version 0.1.0:
802 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
803 versions, please see ONEWS.
805 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
806 Copyright information:
808 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
809 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
810 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
811 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
813 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
814 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
815 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
819 version-control: never