1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Time-stamp: <2009-09-08 21:08:29 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.
58 Changes from 0.6.1 to 0.6.2-pre6:
62 - Dutch, thanks to Harry Thijssen.
64 - Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Michel Boaventura.
66 Thanks for translations are also due to the coordinators at
67 translationproject.org.
69 * Statistical bug fixes:
71 - REGRESSION: Report correct standard error of the estimate (bug
74 - T-TEST: Report correct significance of paired sample T-test in
75 the common case (bug #26936) and corner cases. Thanks to Mike
76 Griffiths and Matej Cepl for reporting these bugs.
78 * Build fixes and changes:
80 - Make running "make" after running "configure" with different
81 settings reliably rebuild version.c.
83 - Cygwin and MinGW build fixes.
85 - Fixes for building with recent gnulib.
87 - The Makefile now honors two new variables, PSPP_LDFLAGS and
88 PSPPIRE_LDFLAGS, that affect linking of the PSPP and PSPPIRE
89 binaries, respectively. This makes building easier for some
92 - Fixes for "configure --enable-relocatable" (bug #25508).
94 * Data file bug fixes and changes:
96 - Fix reading text data files that contain a mix of white space
97 and commas. Now "a ,b" is treated as two fields containing "a"
98 and "b"; previously it was treated as three, with an empty field
101 - Fix writing corrupted .sav files on Windows.
103 - Fix writing corrupted .por files (bug #26034).
105 - Fix reading .por files whose initial lines are not padded out
106 with spaces as expected.
108 - PSPP will no longer issue warnings about some .sav file records
109 or values that it does not understand. These warnings were
110 harmless, but needlessly alarmed some users.
112 - Fix crash reading empty string fields from PostgreSQL databases.
114 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
116 - Users may now control precision of output statistics. Instead
117 of hard coding the width and decimals of output numbers, respect
118 the default format in most instances. Counts are now normally
119 displayed with the format of the weight variable, if any.
121 - Fix crash when an INSERT command specifies the name of a file
122 that does not exist (bug #24569).
124 - Fix crash when CROSSTABS specifies a long-string variable (bugs
127 - Fix crash drawing pie charts with many segments.
129 - Fix crash when NUMERIC specifies an invalid format.
131 * PSPPIRE bug fixes and changes:
133 - On Windows, write the output file to the user's home directory
134 instead of the current directory, to better match user
137 - Some data editor fixes.
141 - Fix typo in BINOMIAL section of user manual (bug #25892).
143 Changes from 0.6.0 to 0.6.1:
145 * Statistical bug fixes:
147 - Report correct standardized regression coefficients in linear
148 regression output (bug #23567).
150 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
152 - Avoid crash with pie charts (bug #24014).
154 - Don't append % to count totals (bug #24003).
156 - Don't crash on bad input (bug #24031).
158 - Don't crash if "end data." is not left aligned (bug #24115).
160 - Change default workspace value to 64 MB, to avoid unnecessary
161 disk accesses on modern machines.
165 - Add ".sav" or ".por" suffix to filename when saving with Save_As
168 - Make it possible to reopen the output window on Windows (bug
171 - A POSIX regular expression library is now included and used
172 automatically if the host does not have one or has one that is
175 * Build fixes and changes:
177 - Work around bug in GSL that prevented build with recent GCC
178 versions without manually adding -fgnu89-inline to CFLAGS.
180 - Also warn about missing prerequisites as we encounter them (bug
183 - Distribute necessary files to allow users working from the
184 distributed tarball to configure with --enable-gui-tools.
186 - Append $(EXEEXT_FOR_BUILD) to output file name when building
187 q2c, fixing build problems on Windows.
189 - GSL 1.8 or later is now required.
191 - Build errors with --enable-relocatable were fixed.
193 * The German translations were removed, since native German speakers
194 found them too poor to be useful.
196 Changes from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0:
198 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
199 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
201 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE. This
202 interface allows you to enter data and variable definitions
203 interactively. Commands may be executed in syntax form, or by
204 using the interactive dialog boxes available from the dropdown
207 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
210 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
214 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
215 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
216 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
218 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
219 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
220 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
222 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
223 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
225 Statistical procedure changes:
227 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
228 via least-squares estimation.
230 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
231 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
233 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
236 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
237 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
239 User interface changes:
241 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
242 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
244 * PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
247 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
248 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
249 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
252 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
253 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
254 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
255 executed as if `+' had been specified.
257 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
258 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
259 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
261 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
262 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
263 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
264 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
269 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
270 manual for a full description of the available options.
272 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
273 "make install" will do this for you.
275 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
276 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
278 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
279 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
280 Previously, by default output was written only to file
281 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
282 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
287 - This driver now supports charts in output. Charts are written
288 as separate files that the main output file refers to. By
289 default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
290 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
292 - Configurations are provided that use VT100 (and xterm)
293 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
294 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
298 - The default paper size is now determined using the PAPERSIZE
299 environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale category on
300 systems that support it. If these are not set, the default is
301 now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the default,
302 set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
304 - Font metrics are now read from AFM files, instead of
305 Groff-format metrics files. PostScript fonts can now be
308 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
309 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install
310 AFM files for the standard PostScript fonts, including the
311 ones that the PostScript driver uses by default.
313 - Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
314 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
315 longer needed, or supported.
317 - The PostScript prologue is no longer obtained from the
318 "ps-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file is
319 no longer needed, or supported.
323 - The HTML prologue is no longer obtained from the
324 "html-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file
325 is no longer needed, or supported.
327 Command language changes:
329 * The following commands are new:
331 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files and
332 text data files. It will be extended later to read other
333 types of foreign data.
335 - CD, to change the current directory.
337 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
339 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
342 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
344 - CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
346 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
349 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
351 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
353 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
355 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
357 * PSPP now supports very long string variables (over 255 bytes
360 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
362 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
363 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
364 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
366 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
367 re-implemented in a later release:
369 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
375 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
376 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
377 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
379 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
380 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
382 "Scratch files", a new PSPP extension:
384 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
385 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
386 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
387 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
390 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
391 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
392 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
394 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
395 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
396 reassigned to new files.
398 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
399 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
400 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
401 documentation on those particular commands.
405 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
406 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
407 format of these files.
409 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
410 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
411 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
412 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
415 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
416 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
417 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
418 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
419 native floating point format.
421 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
422 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
423 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
425 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
426 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
428 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
429 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
430 subcommands has been added.
432 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
433 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
434 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
437 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
438 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
440 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
441 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
442 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
446 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
447 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
450 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
451 have been extensively revised and improved.
453 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
456 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
458 Changes in build dependencies:
460 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
463 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
464 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
465 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
467 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
469 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
471 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
473 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
481 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
482 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
485 * T-TEST (re-written).
487 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
488 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
491 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
492 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
493 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
494 third-party software.
496 * SET EPOCH implemented.
498 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
501 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
503 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
504 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
505 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
507 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
508 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
510 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
511 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
513 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
514 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
515 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
518 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
519 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
522 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
525 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
528 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
529 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
530 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
532 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
534 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
536 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
539 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
540 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
543 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
544 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
546 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
550 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
553 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
554 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
556 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
557 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
559 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
562 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
565 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
568 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
569 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
570 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
572 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
574 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
576 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
580 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
582 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
586 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
587 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
589 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
591 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
593 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
597 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
599 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
601 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
602 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
604 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
605 didn't like being the last command in a file.
607 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
608 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
609 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
610 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
612 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
613 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
614 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
616 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
617 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
618 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
620 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
621 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
622 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
625 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
626 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
629 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
630 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
632 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
633 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
634 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
636 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
637 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
638 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
640 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
641 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
642 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
645 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
646 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
649 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
650 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
652 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
655 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
656 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
657 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
659 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
660 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
664 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
665 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
667 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
668 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
669 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
671 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
673 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
677 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
679 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
681 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
682 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
684 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
686 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
687 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
689 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
690 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
692 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
693 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
696 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
697 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
702 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
703 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
704 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
706 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
710 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
712 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
713 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
716 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
717 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
718 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
720 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
722 Procedures now implemented:
723 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
725 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
728 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
729 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
740 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
741 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
744 New command-line features:
745 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
746 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
747 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
748 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
749 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
751 Operator LAG is now implemented.
753 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
755 Table output manager completely rewritten.
757 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
758 reinstall your `devices' file.
760 New output driver for HTML.
762 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
764 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
766 Added Texinfo documentation for:
767 * PSPP system file format
768 * PSPP portable file format
769 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
772 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
773 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
775 Changes for version 0.1.0:
777 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
778 versions, please see ONEWS.
780 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
781 Copyright information:
783 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
784 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
785 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
786 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
788 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
789 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
790 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
794 version-control: never