1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Time-stamp: <2009-10-06 20:46:21 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 0.7.1 to 0.7.2:
10 * Updated Perl module interface.
12 * Value labels for long string variables are now supported.
14 * Missing values for long string variables are now supported.
16 Changes from 0.7.0 to 0.7.1:
18 * Added a perl module to facilitate reading and writing of pspp system
19 files from perl programs.
21 Changes from 0.6.2-pre6 to 0.7.0:
23 * Custom variable and data file attributes are now supported.
24 Commands VARIABLE ATTRIBUTE and DATAFILE ATTRIBUTE have been added
25 for setting and clear attributes. Support for attributes has also
26 been added to commands that read and write system files, such as
27 SAVE and GET, as well as to the DISPLAY command.
29 * Numererous improvements to the Graphical User Interface have
30 made. Notable improvements include:
32 - Non-Ascii characters in strings, labels and variable names are
35 - A "Split Window" function is available, which makes it easier to
36 see different parts of a large data file.
38 - Data files can now be opened by specifing their name as the first
39 argument. This means that on a properly configured desktop, double
40 clicking on an icon will open the file.
43 * New statistical procedures:
48 NPAR TESTS now supports the WILCOXON and SIGN subcommands.
50 The CROSSTABS command has been completely re-implemented to fix numerous bugs.
52 * Three new commands to combine data files have been added: MATCH FILES,
55 * A tutorial chapter has been added to the user manual.
57 Changes from 0.6.1 to 0.6.2
61 - Dutch, thanks to Harry Thijssen.
63 - Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Michel Boaventura.
65 Thanks for translations are also due to the coordinators at
66 translationproject.org.
68 * Statistical bug fixes:
70 - REGRESSION: Report correct standard error of the estimate (bug
73 - T-TEST: Report correct significance of paired sample T-test in
74 the common case (bug #26936) and corner cases. Thanks to Mike
75 Griffiths and Matej Cepl for reporting these bugs.
77 * Build fixes and changes:
79 - Fix build with GTK+ 2.17.4 and later.
81 - Make running "make" after running "configure" with different
82 settings reliably rebuild version.c.
84 - Cygwin and MinGW build fixes.
86 - Fixes for building with recent gnulib.
88 - The Makefile now honors two new variables, PSPP_LDFLAGS and
89 PSPPIRE_LDFLAGS, that affect linking of the PSPP and PSPPIRE
90 binaries, respectively. This makes building easier for some
93 - Fixes for "configure --enable-relocatable" (bug #25508).
95 * Data file bug fixes and changes:
97 - Fix reading text data files that contain a mix of white space
98 and commas. Now "a ,b" is treated as two fields containing "a"
99 and "b"; previously it was treated as three, with an empty field
102 - Fix writing corrupted .sav files on Windows.
104 - Fix writing variable labels longer than 252 bytes to save files.
105 Thanks to Robert Westlund for reporting this bug.
107 - Fix writing corrupted .por files (bug #26034).
109 - Fix reading .por files whose initial lines are not padded out
110 with spaces as expected.
112 - PSPP will no longer issue warnings about some .sav file records
113 or values that it does not understand. These warnings were
114 harmless, but needlessly alarmed some users.
116 - Fix crash reading empty string fields from PostgreSQL databases.
118 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
120 - Users may now control precision of output statistics. Instead
121 of hard coding the width and decimals of output numbers, respect
122 the default format in most instances. Counts are now normally
123 displayed with the format of the weight variable, if any.
125 - Fix crash when an INSERT command specifies the name of a file
126 that does not exist (bug #24569).
128 - Fix crash when CROSSTABS specifies a long-string variable (bugs
131 - Fix crash drawing pie charts with many segments.
133 - Fix crash when NUMERIC specifies an invalid format.
135 * PSPPIRE bug fixes and changes:
137 - On Windows, write the output file to the user's home directory
138 instead of the current directory, to better match user
141 - Some data editor fixes.
145 - Fix typo in BINOMIAL section of user manual (bug #25892).
147 Changes from 0.6.0 to 0.6.1:
149 * Statistical bug fixes:
151 - Report correct standardized regression coefficients in linear
152 regression output (bug #23567).
154 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
156 - Avoid crash with pie charts (bug #24014).
158 - Don't append % to count totals (bug #24003).
160 - Don't crash on bad input (bug #24031).
162 - Don't crash if "end data." is not left aligned (bug #24115).
164 - Change default workspace value to 64 MB, to avoid unnecessary
165 disk accesses on modern machines.
169 - Add ".sav" or ".por" suffix to filename when saving with Save_As
172 - Make it possible to reopen the output window on Windows (bug
175 - A POSIX regular expression library is now included and used
176 automatically if the host does not have one or has one that is
179 * Build fixes and changes:
181 - Work around bug in GSL that prevented build with recent GCC
182 versions without manually adding -fgnu89-inline to CFLAGS.
184 - Also warn about missing prerequisites as we encounter them (bug
187 - Distribute necessary files to allow users working from the
188 distributed tarball to configure with --enable-gui-tools.
190 - Append $(EXEEXT_FOR_BUILD) to output file name when building
191 q2c, fixing build problems on Windows.
193 - GSL 1.8 or later is now required.
195 - Build errors with --enable-relocatable were fixed.
197 * The German translations were removed, since native German speakers
198 found them too poor to be useful.
200 Changes from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0:
202 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
203 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
205 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE. This
206 interface allows you to enter data and variable definitions
207 interactively. Commands may be executed in syntax form, or by
208 using the interactive dialog boxes available from the dropdown
211 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
214 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
218 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
219 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
220 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
222 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
223 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
224 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
226 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
227 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
229 Statistical procedure changes:
231 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
232 via least-squares estimation.
234 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
235 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
237 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
240 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
241 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
243 User interface changes:
245 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
246 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
248 * PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
251 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
252 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
253 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
256 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
257 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
258 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
259 executed as if `+' had been specified.
261 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
262 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
263 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
265 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
266 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
267 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
268 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
273 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
274 manual for a full description of the available options.
276 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
277 "make install" will do this for you.
279 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
280 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
282 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
283 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
284 Previously, by default output was written only to file
285 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
286 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
291 - This driver now supports charts in output. Charts are written
292 as separate files that the main output file refers to. By
293 default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
294 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
296 - Configurations are provided that use VT100 (and xterm)
297 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
298 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
302 - The default paper size is now determined using the PAPERSIZE
303 environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale category on
304 systems that support it. If these are not set, the default is
305 now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the default,
306 set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
308 - Font metrics are now read from AFM files, instead of
309 Groff-format metrics files. PostScript fonts can now be
312 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
313 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install
314 AFM files for the standard PostScript fonts, including the
315 ones that the PostScript driver uses by default.
317 - Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
318 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
319 longer needed, or supported.
321 - The PostScript prologue is no longer obtained from the
322 "ps-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file is
323 no longer needed, or supported.
327 - The HTML prologue is no longer obtained from the
328 "html-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file
329 is no longer needed, or supported.
331 Command language changes:
333 * The following commands are new:
335 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files and
336 text data files. It will be extended later to read other
337 types of foreign data.
339 - CD, to change the current directory.
341 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
343 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
346 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
348 - CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
350 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
353 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
355 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
357 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
359 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
361 * PSPP now supports very long string variables (over 255 bytes
364 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
366 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
367 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
368 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
370 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
371 re-implemented in a later release:
373 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
379 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
380 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
381 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
383 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
384 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
386 "Scratch files", a new PSPP extension:
388 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
389 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
390 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
391 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
394 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
395 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
396 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
398 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
399 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
400 reassigned to new files.
402 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
403 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
404 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
405 documentation on those particular commands.
409 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
410 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
411 format of these files.
413 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
414 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
415 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
416 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
419 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
420 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
421 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
422 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
423 native floating point format.
425 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
426 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
427 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
429 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
430 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
432 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
433 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
434 subcommands has been added.
436 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
437 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
438 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
441 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
442 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
444 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
445 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
446 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
450 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
451 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
454 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
455 have been extensively revised and improved.
457 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
460 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
462 Changes in build dependencies:
464 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
467 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
468 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
469 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
471 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
473 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
475 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
477 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
485 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
486 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
489 * T-TEST (re-written).
491 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
492 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
495 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
496 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
497 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
498 third-party software.
500 * SET EPOCH implemented.
502 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
505 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
507 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
508 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
509 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
511 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
512 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
514 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
515 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
517 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
518 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
519 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
522 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
523 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
526 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
529 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
532 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
533 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
534 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
536 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
538 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
540 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
543 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
544 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
547 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
548 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
550 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
554 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
557 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
558 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
560 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
561 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
563 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
566 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
569 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
572 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
573 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
574 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
576 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
578 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
580 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
584 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
586 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
590 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
591 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
593 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
595 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
597 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
601 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
603 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
605 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
606 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
608 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
609 didn't like being the last command in a file.
611 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
612 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
613 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
614 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
616 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
617 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
618 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
620 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
621 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
622 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
624 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
625 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
626 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
629 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
630 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
633 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
634 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
636 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
637 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
638 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
640 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
641 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
642 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
644 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
645 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
646 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
649 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
650 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
653 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
654 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
656 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
659 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
660 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
661 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
663 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
664 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
668 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
669 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
671 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
672 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
673 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
675 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
677 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
681 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
683 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
685 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
686 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
688 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
690 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
691 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
693 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
694 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
696 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
697 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
700 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
701 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
706 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
707 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
708 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
710 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
714 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
716 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
717 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
720 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
721 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
722 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
724 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
726 Procedures now implemented:
727 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
729 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
732 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
733 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
744 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
745 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
748 New command-line features:
749 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
750 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
751 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
752 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
753 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
755 Operator LAG is now implemented.
757 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
759 Table output manager completely rewritten.
761 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
762 reinstall your `devices' file.
764 New output driver for HTML.
766 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
768 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
770 Added Texinfo documentation for:
771 * PSPP system file format
772 * PSPP portable file format
773 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
776 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
777 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
779 Changes for version 0.1.0:
781 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
782 versions, please see ONEWS.
784 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
785 Copyright information:
787 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
788 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
789 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
790 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
792 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
793 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
794 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
798 version-control: never