1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Time-stamp: <2009-07-03 11:42:42 blp>
3 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000, 2008, 2009 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 0.6.1 to 0.6.2-pre3:
10 * Internationalization:
12 - A translation into Dutch is now supplied, thanks to unknown-1
13 and the translationproject.org coordinators.
15 * Statistical bug fixes:
17 - Report correct standard error of the estimate in REGRESSION
20 * Build fixes and changes:
22 - Make running "make" after running "configure" with different
23 settings reliably rebuild version.c.
25 - Cygwin and MinGW build fixes.
27 - Fixes for building with recent gnulib.
29 - The Makefile now honors two new variables, PSPP_LDFLAGS and
30 PSPPIRE_LDFLAGS, that affect linking of the PSPP and PSPPIRE
31 binaries, respectively. This makes building easier for some
34 - Fixes for "configure --enable-relocatable" (bugs #25508).
36 * Data file bug fixes and changes:
38 - Fix reading text data files that contain a mix of white space
39 and commas. Now "a ,b" is treated as two fields containing "a"
40 and "b"; previously it was treated as three, with an empty field
43 - Fix writing corrupted .sav files on Windows.
45 - Fix writing corrupted .por files (bug #26034).
47 - Fix reading .por files whose initial lines are not padded out
48 with spaces as expected.
50 - PSPP will no longer issue warnings about some .sav file records
51 or values that it does not understand. These warnings were
52 harmless, but needlessly alarmed some users.
54 - Fix crash reading empty string fields from PostgreSQL databases.
56 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
58 - Users may now control precision of output statistics. Instead
59 of hard coding the width and decimals of output numbers, respect
60 the default format in most instances. Counts are now normally
61 displayed with the format of the weight variable, if any.
63 - Fix crash when an INSERT command specifies the name of a file
64 that does not exist (bug #24569).
66 - Fix crash when CROSSTABS specifies a long-string variable (bug
69 - Fix crash drawing pie charts with many segments.
71 - Fix crash when NUMERIC specifies an invalid format.
73 * PSPPIRE bug fixes and changes:
75 - On Windows, write the output file to the user's home directory
76 instead of the current directory, to better match user
79 - Some data editor fixes.
83 - Fix typo in BINOMIAL section of user manual (bug #25892).
85 Changes from 0.6.0 to 0.6.1:
87 * Statistical bug fixes:
89 - Report correct standardized regression coefficients in linear
90 regression output (bug #23567).
92 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
94 - Avoid crash with pie charts (bug #24014).
96 - Don't append % to count totals (bug #24003).
98 - Don't crash on bad input (bug #24031).
100 - Don't crash if "end data." is not left aligned (bug #24115).
102 - Change default workspace value to 64 MB, to avoid unnecessary
103 disk accesses on modern machines.
107 - Add ".sav" or ".por" suffix to filename when saving with Save_As
110 - Make it possible to reopen the output window on Windows (bug
113 - A POSIX regular expression library is now included and used
114 automatically if the host does not have one or has one that is
117 * Build fixes and changes:
119 - Work around bug in GSL that prevented build with recent GCC
120 versions without manually adding -fgnu89-inline to CFLAGS.
122 - Also warn about missing prerequisites as we encounter them (bug
125 - Distribute necessary files to allow users working from the
126 distributed tarball to configure with --enable-gui-tools.
128 - Append $(EXEEXT_FOR_BUILD) to output file name when building
129 q2c, fixing build problems on Windows.
131 - GSL 1.8 or later is now required.
133 - Build errors with --enable-relocatable were fixed.
135 * The German translations were removed, since native German speakers
136 found them too poor to be useful.
138 Changes from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0:
140 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
141 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
143 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE. This
144 interface allows you to enter data and variable definitions
145 interactively. Commands may be executed in syntax form, or by
146 using the interactive dialog boxes available from the dropdown
149 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
152 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
156 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
157 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
158 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
160 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
161 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
162 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
164 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
165 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
167 Statistical procedure changes:
169 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
170 via least-squares estimation.
172 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
173 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
175 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
178 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
179 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
181 User interface changes:
183 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
184 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
186 * PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
189 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
190 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
191 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
194 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
195 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
196 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
197 executed as if `+' had been specified.
199 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
200 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
201 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
203 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
204 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
205 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
206 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
211 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
212 manual for a full description of the available options.
214 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
215 "make install" will do this for you.
217 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
218 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
220 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
221 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
222 Previously, by default output was written only to file
223 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
224 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
229 - This driver now supports charts in output. Charts are written
230 as separate files that the main output file refers to. By
231 default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
232 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
234 - Configurations are provided that use VT100 (and xterm)
235 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
236 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
240 - The default paper size is now determined using the PAPERSIZE
241 environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale category on
242 systems that support it. If these are not set, the default is
243 now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the default,
244 set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
246 - Font metrics are now read from AFM files, instead of
247 Groff-format metrics files. PostScript fonts can now be
250 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
251 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install
252 AFM files for the standard PostScript fonts, including the
253 ones that the PostScript driver uses by default.
255 - Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
256 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
257 longer needed, or supported.
259 - The PostScript prologue is no longer obtained from the
260 "ps-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file is
261 no longer needed, or supported.
265 - The HTML prologue is no longer obtained from the
266 "html-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file
267 is no longer needed, or supported.
269 Command language changes:
271 * The following commands are new:
273 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files and
274 text data files. It will be extended later to read other
275 types of foreign data.
277 - CD, to change the current directory.
279 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
281 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
284 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
286 - CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
288 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
291 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
293 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
295 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
297 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
299 * PSPP now supports very long string variables (over 255 bytes
302 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
304 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
305 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
306 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
308 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
309 re-implemented in a later release:
311 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
317 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
318 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
319 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
321 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
322 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
324 "Scratch files", a new PSPP extension:
326 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
327 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
328 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
329 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
332 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
333 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
334 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
336 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
337 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
338 reassigned to new files.
340 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
341 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
342 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
343 documentation on those particular commands.
347 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
348 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
349 format of these files.
351 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
352 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
353 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
354 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
357 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
358 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
359 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
360 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
361 native floating point format.
363 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
364 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
365 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
367 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
368 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
370 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
371 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
372 subcommands has been added.
374 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
375 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
376 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
379 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
380 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
382 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
383 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
384 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
388 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
389 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
392 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
393 have been extensively revised and improved.
395 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
398 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
400 Changes in build dependencies:
402 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
405 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
406 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
407 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
409 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
411 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
413 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
415 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
423 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
424 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
427 * T-TEST (re-written).
429 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
430 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
433 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
434 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
435 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
436 third-party software.
438 * SET EPOCH implemented.
440 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
443 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
445 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
446 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
447 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
449 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
450 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
452 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
453 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
455 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
456 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
457 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
460 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
461 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
464 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
467 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
470 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
471 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
472 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
474 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
476 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
478 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
481 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
482 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
485 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
486 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
488 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
492 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
495 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
496 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
498 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
499 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
501 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
504 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
507 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
510 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
511 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
512 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
514 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
516 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
518 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
522 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
524 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
528 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
529 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
531 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
533 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
535 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
539 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
541 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
543 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
544 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
546 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
547 didn't like being the last command in a file.
549 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
550 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
551 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
552 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
554 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
555 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
556 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
558 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
559 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
560 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
562 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
563 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
564 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
567 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
568 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
571 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
572 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
574 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
575 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
576 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
578 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
579 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
580 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
582 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
583 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
584 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
587 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
588 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
591 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
592 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
594 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
597 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
598 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
599 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
601 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
602 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
606 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
607 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
609 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
610 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
611 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
613 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
615 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
619 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
621 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
623 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
624 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
626 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
628 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
629 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
631 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
632 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
634 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
635 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
638 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
639 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
644 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
645 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
646 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
648 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
652 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
654 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
655 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
658 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
659 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
660 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
662 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
664 Procedures now implemented:
665 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
667 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
670 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
671 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
682 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
683 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
686 New command-line features:
687 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
688 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
689 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
690 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
691 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
693 Operator LAG is now implemented.
695 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
697 Table output manager completely rewritten.
699 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
700 reinstall your `devices' file.
702 New output driver for HTML.
704 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
706 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
708 Added Texinfo documentation for:
709 * PSPP system file format
710 * PSPP portable file format
711 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
714 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
715 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
717 Changes for version 0.1.0:
719 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
720 versions, please see ONEWS.
722 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
723 Copyright information:
725 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
726 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
727 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
728 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
730 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
731 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
732 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
736 version-control: never