1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Time-stamp: <2008-10-11 10:04:51 blp>
3 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000, 2008 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 0.7.0 to 0.7.1:
10 * Added a perl module to facilitate reading and writing of pspp system
11 files from perl programs.
13 Changes from 0.6.1 to 0.7.0:
15 * Custom variable and data file attributes are now supported.
16 Commands VARIABLE ATTRIBUTE and DATAFILE ATTRIBUTE have been added
17 for setting and clear attributes. Support for attributes has also
18 been added to commands that read and write system files, such as
19 SAVE and GET, as well as to the DISPLAY command.
21 Changes from 0.6.0 to 0.6.1:
23 * Statistical bug fixes:
25 - Report correct standardized regression coefficients in linear
26 regression output (bug #23567).
28 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
30 - Avoid crash with pie charts (bug #24014).
32 - Don't append % to count totals (bug #24003).
34 - Don't crash on bad input (bug #24031).
36 - Don't crash if "end data." is not left aligned (bug #24115).
38 - Change default workspace value to 64 MB, to avoid unnecessary
39 disk accesses on modern machines.
43 - Add ".sav" or ".por" suffix to filename when saving with Save_As
46 - Make it possible to reopen the output window on Windows (bug
49 - A POSIX regular expression library is now included and used
50 automatically if the host does not have one or has one that is
53 * Build fixes and changes:
55 - Work around bug in GSL that prevented build with recent GCC
56 versions without manually adding -fgnu89-inline to CFLAGS.
58 - Also warn about missing prerequisites as we encounter them (bug
61 - Distribute necessary files to allow users working from the
62 distributed tarball to configure with --enable-gui-tools.
64 - Append $(EXEEXT_FOR_BUILD) to output file name when building
65 q2c, fixing build problems on Windows.
67 - GSL 1.8 or later is now required.
69 - Build errors with --enable-relocatable were fixed.
71 * The German translations were removed, since native German speakers
72 found them too poor to be useful.
74 Changes from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0:
76 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
77 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
79 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE. This
80 interface allows you to enter data and variable definitions
81 interactively. Commands may be executed in syntax form, or by
82 using the interactive dialog boxes available from the dropdown
85 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
88 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
92 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
93 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
94 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
96 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
97 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
98 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
100 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
101 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
103 Statistical procedure changes:
105 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
106 via least-squares estimation.
108 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
109 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
111 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
114 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
115 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
117 User interface changes:
119 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
120 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
122 * PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
125 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
126 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
127 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
130 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
131 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
132 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
133 executed as if `+' had been specified.
135 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
136 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
137 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
139 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
140 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
141 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
142 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
147 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
148 manual for a full description of the available options.
150 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
151 "make install" will do this for you.
153 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
154 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
156 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
157 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
158 Previously, by default output was written only to file
159 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
160 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
165 - This driver now supports charts in output. Charts are written
166 as separate files that the main output file refers to. By
167 default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
168 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
170 - Configurations are provided that use VT100 (and xterm)
171 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
172 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
176 - The default paper size is now determined using the PAPERSIZE
177 environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale category on
178 systems that support it. If these are not set, the default is
179 now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the default,
180 set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
182 - Font metrics are now read from AFM files, instead of
183 Groff-format metrics files. PostScript fonts can now be
186 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
187 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install
188 AFM files for the standard PostScript fonts, including the
189 ones that the PostScript driver uses by default.
191 - Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
192 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
193 longer needed, or supported.
195 - The PostScript prologue is no longer obtained from the
196 "ps-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file is
197 no longer needed, or supported.
201 - The HTML prologue is no longer obtained from the
202 "html-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file
203 is no longer needed, or supported.
205 Command language changes:
207 * The following commands are new:
209 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files and
210 text data files. It will be extended later to read other
211 types of foreign data.
213 - CD, to change the current directory.
215 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
217 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
220 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
222 - CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
224 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
227 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
229 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
231 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
233 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
235 * PSPP now supports very long string variables (over 255 bytes
238 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
240 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
241 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
242 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
244 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
245 re-implemented in a later release:
247 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
253 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
254 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
255 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
257 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
258 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
260 "Scratch files", a new PSPP extension:
262 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
263 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
264 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
265 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
268 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
269 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
270 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
272 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
273 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
274 reassigned to new files.
276 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
277 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
278 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
279 documentation on those particular commands.
283 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
284 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
285 format of these files.
287 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
288 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
289 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
290 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
293 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
294 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
295 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
296 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
297 native floating point format.
299 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
300 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
301 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
303 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
304 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
306 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
307 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
308 subcommands has been added.
310 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
311 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
312 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
315 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
316 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
318 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
319 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
320 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
324 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
325 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
328 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
329 have been extensively revised and improved.
331 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
334 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
336 Changes in build dependencies:
338 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
341 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
342 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
343 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
345 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
347 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
349 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
351 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
359 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
360 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
363 * T-TEST (re-written).
365 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
366 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
369 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
370 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
371 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
372 third-party software.
374 * SET EPOCH implemented.
376 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
379 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
381 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
382 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
383 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
385 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
386 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
388 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
389 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
391 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
392 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
393 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
396 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
397 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
400 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
403 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
406 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
407 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
408 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
410 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
412 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
414 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
417 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
418 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
421 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
422 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
424 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
428 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
431 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
432 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
434 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
435 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
437 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
440 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
443 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
446 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
447 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
448 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
450 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
452 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
454 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
458 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
460 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
464 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
465 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
467 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
469 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
471 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
475 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
477 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
479 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
480 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
482 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
483 didn't like being the last command in a file.
485 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
486 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
487 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
488 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
490 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
491 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
492 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
494 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
495 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
496 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
498 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
499 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
500 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
503 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
504 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
507 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
508 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
510 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
511 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
512 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
514 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
515 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
516 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
518 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
519 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
520 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
523 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
524 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
527 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
528 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
530 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
533 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
534 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
535 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
537 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
538 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
542 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
543 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
545 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
546 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
547 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
549 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
551 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
555 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
557 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
559 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
560 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
562 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
564 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
565 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
567 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
568 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
570 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
571 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
574 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
575 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
580 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
581 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
582 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
584 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
588 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
590 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
591 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
594 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
595 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
596 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
598 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
600 Procedures now implemented:
601 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
603 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
606 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
607 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
618 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
619 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
622 New command-line features:
623 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
624 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
625 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
626 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
627 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
629 Operator LAG is now implemented.
631 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
633 Table output manager completely rewritten.
635 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
636 reinstall your `devices' file.
638 New output driver for HTML.
640 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
642 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
644 Added Texinfo documentation for:
645 * PSPP system file format
646 * PSPP portable file format
647 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
650 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
651 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
653 Changes for version 0.1.0:
655 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
656 versions, please see ONEWS.
658 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
659 Copyright information:
661 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
663 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
664 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
665 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
666 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
668 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
669 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
670 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
674 version-control: never