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 0.6.1 to 0.7.0:
10 * Custom variable and data file attributes are now supported.
11 Commands VARIABLE ATTRIBUTE and DATAFILE ATTRIBUTE have been added
12 for setting and clear attributes. Support for attributes has also
13 been added to commands that read and write system files, such as
14 SAVE and GET, as well as to the DISPLAY command.
16 Changes from 0.6.0 to 0.6.1:
18 * Statistical bug fixes:
20 - Report correct standardized regression coefficients in linear
21 regression output (bug #23567).
23 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
25 - Avoid crash with pie charts (bug #24014).
27 - Don't append % to count totals (bug #24003).
29 - Don't crash on bad input (bug #24031).
31 - Don't crash if "end data." is not left aligned (bug #24115).
33 - Change default workspace value to 64 MB, to avoid unnecessary
34 disk accesses on modern machines.
38 - Add ".sav" or ".por" suffix to filename when saving with Save_As
41 - Make it possible to reopen the output window on Windows (bug
44 - A POSIX regular expression library is now included and used
45 automatically if the host does not have one or has one that is
48 * Build fixes and changes:
50 - Work around bug in GSL that prevented build with recent GCC
51 versions without manually adding -fgnu89-inline to CFLAGS.
53 - Also warn about missing prerequisites as we encounter them (bug
56 - Distribute necessary files to allow users working from the
57 distributed tarball to configure with --enable-gui-tools.
59 - Append $(EXEEXT_FOR_BUILD) to output file name when building
60 q2c, fixing build problems on Windows.
62 - GSL 1.8 or later is now required.
64 - Build errors with --enable-relocatable were fixed.
66 * The German translations were removed, since native German speakers
67 found them too poor to be useful.
69 Changes from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0:
71 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
72 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
74 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE. This
75 interface allows you to enter data and variable definitions
76 interactively. Commands may be executed in syntax form, or by
77 using the interactive dialog boxes available from the dropdown
80 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
83 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
87 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
88 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
89 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
91 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
92 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
93 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
95 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
96 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
98 Statistical procedure changes:
100 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
101 via least-squares estimation.
103 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
104 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
106 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
109 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
110 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
112 User interface changes:
114 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
115 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
117 * PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
120 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
121 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
122 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
125 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
126 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
127 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
128 executed as if `+' had been specified.
130 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
131 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
132 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
134 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
135 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
136 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
137 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
142 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
143 manual for a full description of the available options.
145 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
146 "make install" will do this for you.
148 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
149 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
151 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
152 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
153 Previously, by default output was written only to file
154 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
155 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
160 - This driver now supports charts in output. Charts are written
161 as separate files that the main output file refers to. By
162 default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
163 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
165 - Configurations are provided that use VT100 (and xterm)
166 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
167 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
171 - The default paper size is now determined using the PAPERSIZE
172 environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale category on
173 systems that support it. If these are not set, the default is
174 now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the default,
175 set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
177 - Font metrics are now read from AFM files, instead of
178 Groff-format metrics files. PostScript fonts can now be
181 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
182 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install
183 AFM files for the standard PostScript fonts, including the
184 ones that the PostScript driver uses by default.
186 - Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
187 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
188 longer needed, or supported.
190 - The PostScript prologue is no longer obtained from the
191 "ps-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file is
192 no longer needed, or supported.
196 - The HTML prologue is no longer obtained from the
197 "html-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file
198 is no longer needed, or supported.
200 Command language changes:
202 * The following commands are new:
204 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files and
205 text data files. It will be extended later to read other
206 types of foreign data.
208 - CD, to change the current directory.
210 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
212 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
215 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
217 - CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
219 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
222 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
224 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
226 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
228 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
230 * PSPP now supports very long string variables (over 255 bytes
233 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
235 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
236 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
237 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
239 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
240 re-implemented in a later release:
242 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
248 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
249 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
250 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
252 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
253 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
255 "Scratch files", a new PSPP extension:
257 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
258 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
259 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
260 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
263 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
264 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
265 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
267 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
268 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
269 reassigned to new files.
271 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
272 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
273 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
274 documentation on those particular commands.
278 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
279 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
280 format of these files.
282 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
283 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
284 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
285 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
288 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
289 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
290 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
291 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
292 native floating point format.
294 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
295 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
296 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
298 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
299 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
301 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
302 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
303 subcommands has been added.
305 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
306 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
307 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
310 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
311 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
313 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
314 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
315 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
319 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
320 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
323 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
324 have been extensively revised and improved.
326 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
329 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
331 Changes in build dependencies:
333 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
336 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
337 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
338 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
340 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
342 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
344 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
346 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
354 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
355 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
358 * T-TEST (re-written).
360 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
361 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
364 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
365 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
366 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
367 third-party software.
369 * SET EPOCH implemented.
371 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
374 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
376 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
377 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
378 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
380 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
381 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
383 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
384 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
386 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
387 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
388 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
391 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
392 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
395 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
398 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
401 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
402 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
403 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
405 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
407 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
409 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
412 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
413 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
416 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
417 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
419 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
423 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
426 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
427 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
429 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
430 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
432 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
435 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
438 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
441 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
442 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
443 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
445 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
447 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
449 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
453 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
455 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
459 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
460 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
462 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
464 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
466 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
470 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
472 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
474 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
475 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
477 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
478 didn't like being the last command in a file.
480 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
481 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
482 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
483 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
485 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
486 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
487 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
489 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
490 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
491 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
493 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
494 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
495 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
498 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
499 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
502 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
503 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
505 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
506 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
507 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
509 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
510 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
511 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
513 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
514 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
515 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
518 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
519 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
522 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
523 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
525 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
528 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
529 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
530 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
532 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
533 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
537 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
538 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
540 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
541 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
542 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
544 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
546 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
550 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
552 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
554 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
555 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
557 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
559 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
560 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
562 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
563 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
565 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
566 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
569 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
570 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
575 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
576 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
577 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
579 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
583 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
585 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
586 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
589 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
590 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
591 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
593 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
595 Procedures now implemented:
596 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
598 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
601 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
602 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
613 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
614 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
617 New command-line features:
618 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
619 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
620 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
621 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
622 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
624 Operator LAG is now implemented.
626 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
628 Table output manager completely rewritten.
630 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
631 reinstall your `devices' file.
633 New output driver for HTML.
635 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
637 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
639 Added Texinfo documentation for:
640 * PSPP system file format
641 * PSPP portable file format
642 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
645 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
646 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
648 Changes for version 0.1.0:
650 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
651 versions, please see ONEWS.
653 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
654 Copyright information:
656 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
658 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
659 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
660 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
661 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
663 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
664 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
665 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
669 version-control: never