1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Time-stamp: <2006-01-28 19:05:46 blp>
3 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end for copying conditions.
6 Please send PSPP bug reports to bug-gnu-pspp@gnu.org.
10 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
12 * CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
16 * XEXPORT (a PSPP extension).
20 A new PSPP extension called "scratch files" has been implemented.
21 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
22 any number of cases. A sufficiently small scratch file is stored
23 in memory; if it grows too large, it is written to disk. By
24 default, any file handle whose name begins with # is assumed to
25 refer to a scratch file.
27 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
28 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
29 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
31 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
32 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
33 reassigned to new files.
35 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
36 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
37 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
38 documentation on those particular commands.
40 PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
43 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
45 Changes in build dependencies:
47 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
50 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
51 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
52 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
54 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
56 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
58 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
60 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
68 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
69 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
72 * T-TEST (re-written).
74 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
75 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
78 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
79 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
80 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
83 * SET EPOCH implemented.
85 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
88 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
90 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
91 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
92 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
94 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
95 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
97 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
98 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
100 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
101 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
102 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
105 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
106 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
109 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
112 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
115 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
116 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
117 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
119 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
121 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
123 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
126 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
127 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
130 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
131 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
133 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
137 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
140 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
141 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
143 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
144 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
146 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
149 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
152 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
155 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
156 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
157 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
159 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
161 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
163 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
167 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
169 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
173 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
174 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
176 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
178 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
180 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
184 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
186 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
188 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
189 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
191 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
192 didn't like being the last command in a file.
194 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
195 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
196 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
197 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
199 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
200 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
201 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
203 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
204 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
205 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
207 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
208 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
209 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
212 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
213 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
216 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
217 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
219 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
220 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
221 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
223 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
224 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
225 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
227 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
228 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
229 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
232 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
233 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
236 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
237 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
239 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
242 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
243 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
244 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
246 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
247 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
251 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
252 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
254 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
255 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
256 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
258 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
260 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
264 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
266 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
268 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
269 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
271 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
273 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
274 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
276 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
277 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
279 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
280 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
283 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
284 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
289 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
290 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
291 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
293 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
297 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
299 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
300 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
303 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
304 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
305 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
307 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
309 Procedures now implemented:
310 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
312 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
315 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
316 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
327 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
328 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
331 New command-line features:
332 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
333 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
334 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
335 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
336 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
338 Operator LAG is now implemented.
340 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
342 Table output manager completely rewritten.
344 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
345 reinstall your `devices' file.
347 New output driver for HTML.
349 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
351 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
353 Added Texinfo documentation for:
354 * PSPP system file format
355 * PSPP portable file format
356 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
359 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
360 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
362 Changes for version 0.1.0:
364 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
365 versions, please see ONEWS.
367 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
368 Copyright information:
370 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
372 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
373 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
374 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
375 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
377 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
378 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
379 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
383 version-control: never