1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996-2000, 2008-2016, 2017, 2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send PSPP bug reports to bug-gnu-pspp@gnu.org.
7 Changes from 1.2.0 to 1.3.0:
9 * A bug where the Data|Select Cases|Random Sample menu would generate
10 invalid syntax has been fixed.
12 * FREQUENCIES will emit a warning if one or more weight values are missing.
14 * Plain text output is no longer divided into pages, since it is now
15 rarely printed on paper.
17 * pspp-convert: New "-a", "-l", "--password-list" options to search
18 for an encrypted file's password.
20 * Improvements to SAVE DATA COLLECTION support for MDD files.
22 * Bug fix for CVE-2018-20230.
24 * The /RENAME subcommand in SAVE TRANSLATE et al. has been extended
25 to support the syntax also accepted by other software.
27 * The EXAMINE command will now perform the Shapiro-Wilk test when
28 one or more plots are requested.
30 * The REGRESSION command now supports the /STATISTICS=TOL option which
31 outputs tolerance and variance inflation factor metrics for the data.
33 * The QUICK CLUSTER command now supports the /SAVE option which can
34 be used to save the cases' cluster membership and/or their distance
35 from the cluster centre to the active file.
37 * The MEANS command has been re-implemented.
39 * A bug where the GUI would crash when T-TEST was executed whilst
40 a filter was set has been fixed.
42 * The GUI now has a sub-dialog for post-hoc tests of the oneway
45 * Gtk+3.22.0 or later must now be used when building.
47 * GRAPH: Categorical barcharts displaying percentages now show the
48 sub-category as a percentage of the primary category instead of the
53 - The PRINT subcommand is now implemented.
57 Changes from 1.0.1 to 1.2.0:
59 * New experimental command SAVE DATA COLLECTION to save MDD files.
61 * MTIME and YMDHMS variable formats now supported.
65 - zlib is now a required dependency. (Previously it was optional.)
67 - Gtk+3.18.0 or later must now be used when building.
69 - The code implementing the sheet rendering has been removed. Instead we
70 use a third party library: spread-sheet-widget.
72 * The "NOMISSING" keyword when generating syntax for piecharts in the
73 frequencies command was omitted. This has been corrected.
75 Changes from 1.0.0 to 1.0.1:
77 * Bug fixes, including fixes for CVE-2017-12958, CVE-2017-12959,
78 CVE-2017-12960, and CVE-2017-12961.
80 Changes from 0.11.0 to 1.0.0:
82 * Translation updates.
84 Changes from 0.10.2 to 0.11.0:
86 * The REGRESSION command now has a /ORIGIN subcommand to perform
87 regression through the origin.
89 * The FACTOR command can now analyse matrix files prepared with MATRIX DATA.
91 * The FACTOR command can now print the anti-image matrices.
93 * The MATRIX DATA command has been added.
95 * Some inappropriate properties in selection dialogs have been corrected.
97 * A bug which could cause the HTML driver to go into a tight loop
100 * An error in the FREQUENCIES procedure, where the word "Mean" was
101 printed when "Variance" was appropriate has been fixed.
103 * The ncurses library is no longer required or used.
105 * A bug where the Mann-Whitney test would give misleading results
106 if run on multiple variables and MISSING=ANALAYSIS was specified
109 * Gtk+3.14.5 or later must now be used when building.
111 * Graphical user interface changes:
113 ** There is a new menu: Edit|Options
115 ** The Non Parametric Statistics Menu has a new item: "K Independent Samples".
117 ** Dialog boxes can now be canceled using the <Escape> key.
119 * The AUTORECODE command now accepts an optional / before INTO.
121 * The short form of the VECTOR command can now create string variables.
123 * Bug fixes, including fixes for CVE-2017-10791 and CVE-2017-10792.
125 Changes from 0.10.1 to 0.10.2:
127 * CROSSTABS implements a new COUNT subcommand to round case or cell
130 * Help will be opened as HTML in default browser if yelp
133 * When plotting scatterplots with only one dataset (the simple case)
134 the colour used for the dataset is now black. The previous default
135 from the Tango palette was too faint to see easily.
137 * The varible info dialog could previously only paste a single variable.
138 Now it can paste multiple variables.
140 * Bug fixes, including the following:
142 - T-test with independent samples GUI crashed with string
143 type variable as group variable.
145 - The variable info dialog showed the previous selected variable
146 superimposed with the currently selected one.
148 - The GLM command did not properly deal with missing values. This
151 Changes from 0.10.0 to 0.10.1:
153 * Bug fixes, including the following:
155 - A bug where certain dialog boxes could not be properly populated
158 - Various commands have been hardened against errors when called
161 * Translation updates. Thanks to our translators!
163 Changes from 0.8.5 to 0.10.0:
165 * The QUICK CLUSTER command has a /PRINT subcommand which shows
166 the initial cluster centres and the final cluster membership of
167 each case. The clustering algorithm has also been updated, so
168 as to produce better separated clusters.
170 * A Russian localisation has been contributed.
172 * The GRAPH command now has a /BAR subcommand to draw barcharts.
174 * If the DECIMAL character is set to COMMA then the ',' character
175 will not be treated as a separator by DATA LIST.
177 * The graphical user interface (psppire) has been changed as follows:
179 - It now uses Gtk+ version 3 instead of version 2. Accordingly, it has a
180 somewhat different look and feel.
182 - There is now a Graphs menu to access the GRAPH command.
184 - The status of dialog box widgets are now preserved between calls
185 to the same dialog box for the same dataset.
187 - The dialog box for the Logistic Regression command will now
188 infer that string variables or any varible with a "measure"
189 of Nominal or Ordinal are to be treated as categorical variables
190 and will generate syntax accordingly.
192 * The pspp-convert utility can now decrypt encrypted syntax files.
193 The encrypted syntax file format is unacceptably insecure, so to
194 discourage its use PSPP and PSPPIRE do not directly read or write
201 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
203 - REPLACE, for search-and-replace of one string with another.
205 - STRUNC, to truncate a string and trim trailing spaces.
207 - MEDIAN, to compute the median of its arguments.
209 - The TRUNC function in expressions now supports additional arguments
210 for truncating to values other than integers and to indicate a level
211 of rounding fuzz. The default rounding fuzz may now be controlled
212 and displayed with SET FUZZBITS and SHOW FUZZBITS, respectively.
214 * Bug fixes, including the following notable ones:
216 - The correlation coefficient in the paired samples t-test
217 procedure is now correctly calculated when presented with
220 - The ESCAPE subcommand has been removed from GET DATA /TYPE=TXT.
221 For compatibility, the behavior that ESCAPE enabled is now the
222 default and only supported behavior.
224 - Rendering of the variable and data sheets in right-to-left locales
227 - The Mann-Whitney test, when run on a dataset containing values
228 of the group variable, other than those defining the test groups,
229 would incorrectly calculate the ranks. This has been corrected.
231 * The IMPORTCASES subcommand on GET DATA is now ignored, for
234 Changes from 0.8.4 to 0.8.5:
236 * The FREQUENCIES and CROSSTABS commands can now generate barcharts.
238 * The FACTOR command can now perform PROMAX rotations.
240 * SPSS/PC+ system files are now supported on GET and other commands
241 that read SPSS system files. The pspp-convert program can now read
242 SPSS/PC+ system files. Writing the obsolete SPSS/PC+ system file
243 format is not supported.
245 * SYSFILE INFO can now read SPSS/PC+ system files and SPSS portable
248 * FREQUENCIES: A bug was fixed where an assertion failure occurred
249 when an empty dataset was presented.
251 * The GRAPH command is now available. Initially it supports
252 scatterplots and histograms.
254 * The RND operator in expressions now supports additional operands
255 for rounding to values other than integers and to indicate a level
256 of rounding fuzz. The default rounding fuzz may now be controlled
257 and displayed with SET FUZZBITS and SHOW FUZZBITS, respectively.
259 Changes from 0.8.3 to 0.8.4:
261 * Formatting of SYSFILE INFO output was made easier to read.
263 * Bug fixes, including the following notable ones:
265 - FREQUENCIES works properly for string variables. (This bug was
266 introduced in 0.8.2.)
268 - CROSSTABS now correctly computes all of the measures that it
269 offers. Some measures have been removed because they were not
272 - The NPAR TESTS calculation of significance for the RUNS
273 subcommand has been corrected.
275 - Planned comparisons in ONEWAY ANOVA now correctly handle negative
278 - The COUNT command now correctly treats missing values as
281 - Conformance fixes to Open Document output format.
283 Changes from 0.8.2 to 0.8.3:
285 * Independent T-Tests displayed the standard error of the difference
286 and the confidence interval for the unequal variances case, where
287 the equal variances case should have been. This has been fixed.
289 * REGRESSION now recognises /STATISTICS=CI(x) which causes confidence
290 intervals for the coefficients to be printed.
292 * When DESCRIPTIVES calculates Z scores, it now omits cases filtered
293 by the current FILTER settings.
295 * PSPPIRE graphical user interface improvements:
297 - Dialog boxes with source variable lists can now choose the sort
298 order; right click and select from the popup menu.
300 - File|Open now allows an encoding to be selected for opening
303 - File|Display Data File Information|External File... now allows an
304 encoding to be selected.
306 - A problem with the Means dialog has been resolved (bug #41433).
308 - Several problems related to the input of spreadsheets have been
309 fixed (bug #41657, #41620
311 * System file related improvements:
313 - With ENCODING="DETECT", SYSFILE INFO can now help the user to
314 pick an encoding for reading a system file that does not identify
317 - SYSFILE INFO now accepts an ENCODING subcommand to specify the
318 character encoding of string data in the system file.
320 - Variable labels over 255 bytes long are now accepted without
321 truncation (bug #41863).
323 - System files that contain duplicate variable names may now be
324 read successfully (bug #41475).
326 Changes from 0.8.1 to 0.8.2:
328 * Charts are now rendered with colours from the Tango palette instead
329 of fully saturated primaries.
331 * Support for new system file variants:
333 - PSPP can now read and write ZCOMPRESSED system files, which
334 compress data much more effectively than older "compressed"
335 files. (The older format is still supported.)
337 - PSPP can now decrypt encrypted system files, using the new
338 pspp-convert utility. The encrypted system file format is
339 unacceptably insecure, so to discourage its use PSPP and PSPPIRE
340 do not directly read or write this format.
342 * Missing values for long string variables are now read from and
343 written to system files in an SPSS-compatible fashion.
345 (Earlier versions of PSPP that supported missing values for long
346 string variables wrote them to system files in an SPSS-incompatible
347 way. To fix the problem, read the system file with this version of
348 PSPP and then save a new copy of it.)
350 * pspp-convert, a new standalone utility for converting SPSS system
351 and portable files to other formats, is now included. The initial
352 version supports comma-separated value files as output format.
353 pspp-convert can also decrypt encrypted system files.
357 - zlib is now a required dependency. (Previously it was optional.)
359 Changes from 0.8.0 to 0.8.1:
365 * Changes to existing commands:
367 - CROSSTABS: The requirement that one expected count must be less than five
368 before Fishers Exact Test will be reported has been removed.
370 * PSPPIRE graphical user interface improvements:
372 - A new set of icons has been contributed.
374 - Syntax windows now parse syntax in "auto" mode, which in practice
375 should mean that both "batch" and "interactive" syntax now works,
376 instead of just "interactive" syntax.
378 - The variable pane of data windows now include a Role column.
382 - System files written by IBM SPSS 21 are now read without warnings.
384 - System files written by "VOXCO INTERVIEWER 4.3" are now read
387 - PSPPIRE should now more gracefully handle syntax files that contain
390 Changes from 0.6.2 to 0.8.0:
396 - DATAFILE ATTRIBUTES
403 - LOGISTIC REGRESSION
407 - PRESERVE and RESTORE
411 - SAVE TRANSLATE to CSV and tab-delimited files
413 - VARIABLE ATTRIBUTES
415 * Changes to existing commands:
417 - AUTORECODE has a new GROUP subcommand.
419 - CROSSTABS has been re-implemented to fix numerous bugs.
421 - EXAMINE: /MISSING=LISTWISE is now the default.
423 - DO REPEAT command has been reimplemented. Now, when DO REPEAT
424 contains an INCLUDE or INSERT command, substitutions are not
425 applied to the included file.
427 - FILE HANDLE has a new ENDS subcommand to select CR or CRLF new-lines.
429 - HOST has been updated to use more modern syntax.
431 - Most commands that work with data files now support a new
434 - MISSING VALUES can now assign missing values to long string
437 - ONEWAY: the POSTHOC subcommand is now implemented.
439 - The following new subcommands to NPAR TESTS have been implemented:
440 COCHRAN, FRIEDMAN, JONCKHEERE-TERPSTRA, KENDALL, KRUSKAL-WALLIS, MANN-WHITNEY,
441 MCNEMAR, SIGN, WILCOXON, and RUNS
443 - SET and SHOW no longer have ENDCMD, NULLINE, PROMPT, CPROMPT, and
444 DPROMPT subcommands. The defaults are now fixed values.
446 - SHOW now has a JOURNAL subcommand, to show the location of the
449 - VALUE LABELS can now assign value labels to long string
452 * Other language changes:
454 - The new DATASET commands replace the "scratch file" PSPP
455 extension, which is no longer supported.
457 - Strings may now include arbitrary Unicode code points specified
458 in hexadecimal, using the syntax U'hhhh'. For example, Unicode
459 code point U+1D11E, the musical G clef character, may be
460 expressed as U'1D11E'.
462 See the "Tokens" section in the PSPP manual for more information.
464 - In previous versions of PSPP, in a string expressed in
465 hexadecimal with X'hh' syntax, the hexadecimal digits expressed
466 bytes in the locale encoding. In this version of PSPP, X'hh'
467 syntax always expresses bytes in UTF-8 encoding.
469 See the "Tokens" section in the PSPP manual for more information.
471 * PSPPIRE graphical user interface improvements:
473 - Added support for non-ASCII characters in strings, labels and
476 - A "Split Window" function is available, which makes it easier to
477 see different parts of a large data file.
479 - Data files can now be opened by specifing their name as the first
480 argument. This means that on a properly configured desktop, double
481 clicking on an icon will open the file.
483 - Foreign formats, such as Gnumeric, OpenDocument and CSV can be imported
484 via using an "intelligent" application assistant dialog.
488 - The new "cairo" output driver supports output in PostScript, PDF,
489 and SVG formats. Its functionality is a superset of that of the
490 "postscript" driver, which has been removed. You must have Cairo
491 and Pango installed to build the "cairo" driver.
493 - Charts are now produced with Cairo and Pango, instead of libplot.
494 Without them, the new graphing features will not work. If you do
495 not have Cairo and Pango installed, you must run `configure' with
498 - The plain text output driver now properly supports multibyte UTF-8
499 characters, including double-width characters and combining
502 - Output to OpenDocument format is now supported.
504 - The HTML output is much improved.
506 * The "pspp" program has a new option --batch (or -b) that selects
507 "batch" syntax mode. In previous versions of PSPP this syntax mode
508 was the default. Now a new "auto" syntax mode is the default. In
509 "auto" mode, PSPP interprets most syntax files correctly regardless
510 of their intended syntax mode.
512 See the "Syntax Variants" section in the PSPP manual for more
515 * The "pspp" program has a new option --syntax-encoding that
516 specifies the encoding for syntax files listed on the command line,
517 as well as the default encoding for syntax files included with
518 INCLUDE or INSERT. The default is to accept the system locale
519 encoding, UTF-8, UTF-16, or UTF-32, automatically detecting which
520 one the system file uses.
522 See the documentation for the INSERT command in the PSPP manual for
525 * Text data files that PRINT and WRITE creates now use the system
526 native line ends by default (CRLF on Windows, LF only elsewhere).
527 Use the new ENDS subcommand on FILE HANDLE to override the default.
529 * A new Perl module allows Perl programs to read and write PSPP
532 * A tutorial chapter has been added to the user manual.
534 Changes from 0.6.1 to 0.6.2:
538 - Dutch, thanks to Harry Thijssen.
540 - Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Michel Boaventura.
542 Thanks for translations are also due to the coordinators at
543 translationproject.org.
545 * Statistical bug fixes:
547 - REGRESSION: Report correct standard error of the estimate (bug
550 - T-TEST: Report correct significance of paired sample T-test in
551 the common case (bug #26936) and corner cases. Thanks to Mike
552 Griffiths and Matej Cepl for reporting these bugs.
554 * Build fixes and changes:
556 - Fix build with GTK+ 2.17.4 and later.
558 - Make running "make" after running "configure" with different
559 settings reliably rebuild version.c.
561 - Cygwin and MinGW build fixes.
563 - Fixes for building with recent gnulib.
565 - The Makefile now honors two new variables, PSPP_LDFLAGS and
566 PSPPIRE_LDFLAGS, that affect linking of the PSPP and PSPPIRE
567 binaries, respectively. This makes building easier for some
570 - Fixes for "configure --enable-relocatable" (bug #25508).
572 * Data file bug fixes and changes:
574 - Fix reading text data files that contain a mix of white space
575 and commas. Now "a ,b" is treated as two fields containing "a"
576 and "b"; previously it was treated as three, with an empty field
579 - Fix writing corrupted .sav files on Windows.
581 - Fix writing variable labels longer than 252 bytes to save files.
582 Thanks to Robert Westlund for reporting this bug.
584 - Fix writing corrupted .por files (bug #26034).
586 - Fix reading .por files whose initial lines are not padded out
587 with spaces as expected.
589 - PSPP will no longer issue warnings about some .sav file records
590 or values that it does not understand. These warnings were
591 harmless, but needlessly alarmed some users.
593 - Fix crash reading empty string fields from PostgreSQL databases.
595 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
597 - Users may now control precision of output statistics. Instead
598 of hard coding the width and decimals of output numbers, respect
599 the default format in most instances. Counts are now normally
600 displayed with the format of the weight variable, if any.
602 - Fix crash when an INSERT command specifies the name of a file
603 that does not exist (bug #24569).
605 - Fix crash when CROSSTABS specifies a long-string variable (bugs
608 - Fix crash drawing pie charts with many segments.
610 - Fix crash when NUMERIC specifies an invalid format.
612 * PSPPIRE bug fixes and changes:
614 - On Windows, write the output file to the user's home directory
615 instead of the current directory, to better match user
618 - Some data editor fixes.
622 - Fix typo in BINOMIAL section of user manual (bug #25892).
624 Changes from 0.6.0 to 0.6.1:
626 * Statistical bug fixes:
628 - Report correct standardized regression coefficients in linear
629 regression output (bug #23567).
631 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
633 - Avoid crash with pie charts (bug #24014).
635 - Don't append % to count totals (bug #24003).
637 - Don't crash on bad input (bug #24031).
639 - Don't crash if "end data." is not left aligned (bug #24115).
641 - Change default workspace value to 64 MB, to avoid unnecessary
642 disk accesses on modern machines.
646 - Add ".sav" or ".por" suffix to filename when saving with Save_As
649 - Make it possible to reopen the output window on Windows (bug
652 - A POSIX regular expression library is now included and used
653 automatically if the host does not have one or has one that is
656 * Build fixes and changes:
658 - Work around bug in GSL that prevented build with recent GCC
659 versions without manually adding -fgnu89-inline to CFLAGS.
661 - Also warn about missing prerequisites as we encounter them (bug
664 - Distribute necessary files to allow users working from the
665 distributed tarball to configure with --enable-gui-tools.
667 - Append $(EXEEXT_FOR_BUILD) to output file name when building
668 q2c, fixing build problems on Windows.
670 - GSL 1.8 or later is now required.
672 - Build errors with --enable-relocatable were fixed.
674 * The German translations were removed, since native German speakers
675 found them too poor to be useful.
677 Changes from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0:
679 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
680 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
682 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE. This
683 interface allows you to enter data and variable definitions
684 interactively. Commands may be executed in syntax form, or by
685 using the interactive dialog boxes available from the dropdown
688 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
691 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
695 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
696 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
697 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
699 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
700 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
701 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
703 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
704 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
706 Statistical procedure changes:
708 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
709 via least-squares estimation.
711 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
712 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
714 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
717 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
718 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
720 User interface changes:
722 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
723 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
725 * PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
728 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
729 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
730 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
733 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
734 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
735 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
736 executed as if `+' had been specified.
738 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
739 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
740 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
742 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
743 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
744 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
745 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
750 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
751 manual for a full description of the available options.
753 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
754 "make install" will do this for you.
756 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
757 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
759 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
760 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
761 Previously, by default output was written only to file
762 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
763 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
768 - This driver now supports charts in output. Charts are written
769 as separate files that the main output file refers to. By
770 default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
771 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
773 - Configurations are provided that use VT100 (and xterm)
774 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
775 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
779 - The default paper size is now determined using the PAPERSIZE
780 environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale category on
781 systems that support it. If these are not set, the default is
782 now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the default,
783 set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
785 - Font metrics are now read from AFM files, instead of
786 Groff-format metrics files. PostScript fonts can now be
789 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
790 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install
791 AFM files for the standard PostScript fonts, including the
792 ones that the PostScript driver uses by default.
794 - Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
795 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
796 longer needed, or supported.
798 - The PostScript prologue is no longer obtained from the
799 "ps-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file is
800 no longer needed, or supported.
804 - The HTML prologue is no longer obtained from the
805 "html-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file
806 is no longer needed, or supported.
808 Command language changes:
810 * The following commands are new:
812 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files and
813 text data files. It will be extended later to read other
814 types of foreign data.
816 - CD, to change the current directory.
818 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
820 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
823 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
825 - CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
827 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
830 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
832 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
834 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
836 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
838 * PSPP now supports very long string variables (over 255 bytes
841 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
843 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
844 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
845 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
847 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
848 re-implemented in a later release:
850 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
856 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
857 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
858 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
860 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
861 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
863 "Scratch files", a new PSPP extension:
865 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
866 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
867 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
868 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
871 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
872 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
873 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
875 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
876 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
877 reassigned to new files.
879 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
880 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
881 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
882 documentation on those particular commands.
886 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
887 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
888 format of these files.
890 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
891 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
892 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
893 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
896 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
897 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
898 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
899 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
900 native floating point format.
902 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
903 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
904 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
906 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
907 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
909 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
910 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
911 subcommands has been added.
913 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
914 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
915 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
918 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
919 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
921 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
922 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
923 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
927 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
928 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
931 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
932 have been extensively revised and improved.
934 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
937 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
939 Changes in build dependencies:
941 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
944 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
945 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
946 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
948 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
950 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
952 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
954 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
962 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
963 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
966 * T-TEST (re-written).
968 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
969 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
972 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
973 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
974 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
975 third-party software.
977 * SET EPOCH implemented.
979 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
982 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
984 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
985 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
986 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
988 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
989 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
991 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
992 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
994 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
995 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
996 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
999 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
1000 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
1003 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
1006 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
1009 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
1010 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
1011 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
1013 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
1015 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
1017 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
1020 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
1021 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
1024 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
1025 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
1027 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
1031 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
1034 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
1035 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
1037 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
1038 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
1040 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
1043 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
1046 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
1049 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
1050 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
1051 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
1053 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
1055 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
1057 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
1061 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
1063 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
1067 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
1068 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
1070 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
1072 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
1074 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
1078 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
1080 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
1082 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
1083 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
1085 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
1086 didn't like being the last command in a file.
1088 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
1089 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
1090 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
1091 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1093 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
1094 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1095 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1097 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
1098 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
1099 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
1101 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
1102 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
1103 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1106 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
1107 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1110 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1111 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1113 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
1114 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1115 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1117 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
1118 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
1119 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
1121 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
1122 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
1123 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1126 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
1127 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1130 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1131 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1133 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
1136 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
1137 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1138 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1140 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
1141 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
1145 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
1146 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
1148 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
1149 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
1150 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
1152 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
1154 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
1158 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
1160 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
1162 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
1163 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
1165 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
1167 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
1168 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1170 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
1171 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
1173 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
1174 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
1177 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
1178 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
1183 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
1184 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
1185 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
1187 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
1191 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
1193 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
1194 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
1197 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
1198 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
1199 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
1201 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
1203 Procedures now implemented:
1204 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
1206 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
1209 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
1210 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
1221 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
1222 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
1225 New command-line features:
1226 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
1227 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
1228 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
1229 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
1230 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
1232 Operator LAG is now implemented.
1234 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
1236 Table output manager completely rewritten.
1238 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
1239 reinstall your `devices' file.
1241 New output driver for HTML.
1243 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
1245 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
1247 Added Texinfo documentation for:
1248 * PSPP system file format
1249 * PSPP portable file format
1250 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
1253 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
1254 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
1256 Changes for version 0.1.0:
1258 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
1259 versions, please see ONEWS.
1261 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1262 Copyright information:
1264 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
1265 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
1266 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
1267 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1269 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
1270 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
1271 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
1275 version-control: never