1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Time-stamp: <2009-12-05 20:39:07 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 0.7.2 to 0.7.3:
10 * Charts are now produced with Cairo and Pango, instead of libplot.
11 Without them, the new graphing features will not work. If you do
12 not have Cairo and Pango installed, you must run `configure' with
15 * The PostScript driver has been removed.
17 Changes from 0.7.1 to 0.7.2:
19 * Updated Perl module interface.
21 * Value labels for long string variables are now supported.
23 * Missing values for long string variables are now supported.
25 Changes from 0.7.0 to 0.7.1:
27 * Added a perl module to facilitate reading and writing of pspp system
28 files from perl programs.
30 Changes from 0.6.2-pre6 to 0.7.0:
32 * Custom variable and data file attributes are now supported.
33 Commands VARIABLE ATTRIBUTE and DATAFILE ATTRIBUTE have been added
34 for setting and clear attributes. Support for attributes has also
35 been added to commands that read and write system files, such as
36 SAVE and GET, as well as to the DISPLAY command.
38 * Numererous improvements to the Graphical User Interface have
39 made. Notable improvements include:
41 - Non-Ascii characters in strings, labels and variable names are
44 - A "Split Window" function is available, which makes it easier to
45 see different parts of a large data file.
47 - Data files can now be opened by specifing their name as the first
48 argument. This means that on a properly configured desktop, double
49 clicking on an icon will open the file.
52 * New statistical procedures:
57 NPAR TESTS now supports the WILCOXON and SIGN subcommands.
59 The CROSSTABS command has been completely re-implemented to fix numerous bugs.
61 * Three new commands to combine data files have been added: MATCH FILES,
64 * A tutorial chapter has been added to the user manual.
67 Changes from 0.6.1 to 0.6.2-pre6:
71 - Dutch, thanks to Harry Thijssen.
73 - Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Michel Boaventura.
75 Thanks for translations are also due to the coordinators at
76 translationproject.org.
78 * Statistical bug fixes:
80 - REGRESSION: Report correct standard error of the estimate (bug
83 - T-TEST: Report correct significance of paired sample T-test in
84 the common case (bug #26936) and corner cases. Thanks to Mike
85 Griffiths and Matej Cepl for reporting these bugs.
87 * Build fixes and changes:
89 - Make running "make" after running "configure" with different
90 settings reliably rebuild version.c.
92 - Cygwin and MinGW build fixes.
94 - Fixes for building with recent gnulib.
96 - The Makefile now honors two new variables, PSPP_LDFLAGS and
97 PSPPIRE_LDFLAGS, that affect linking of the PSPP and PSPPIRE
98 binaries, respectively. This makes building easier for some
101 - Fixes for "configure --enable-relocatable" (bug #25508).
103 * Data file bug fixes and changes:
105 - Fix reading text data files that contain a mix of white space
106 and commas. Now "a ,b" is treated as two fields containing "a"
107 and "b"; previously it was treated as three, with an empty field
110 - Fix writing corrupted .sav files on Windows.
112 - Fix writing corrupted .por files (bug #26034).
114 - Fix reading .por files whose initial lines are not padded out
115 with spaces as expected.
117 - PSPP will no longer issue warnings about some .sav file records
118 or values that it does not understand. These warnings were
119 harmless, but needlessly alarmed some users.
121 - Fix crash reading empty string fields from PostgreSQL databases.
123 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
125 - Users may now control precision of output statistics. Instead
126 of hard coding the width and decimals of output numbers, respect
127 the default format in most instances. Counts are now normally
128 displayed with the format of the weight variable, if any.
130 - Fix crash when an INSERT command specifies the name of a file
131 that does not exist (bug #24569).
133 - Fix crash when CROSSTABS specifies a long-string variable (bugs
136 - Fix crash drawing pie charts with many segments.
138 - Fix crash when NUMERIC specifies an invalid format.
140 * PSPPIRE bug fixes and changes:
142 - On Windows, write the output file to the user's home directory
143 instead of the current directory, to better match user
146 - Some data editor fixes.
150 - Fix typo in BINOMIAL section of user manual (bug #25892).
152 Changes from 0.6.0 to 0.6.1:
154 * Statistical bug fixes:
156 - Report correct standardized regression coefficients in linear
157 regression output (bug #23567).
159 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
161 - Avoid crash with pie charts (bug #24014).
163 - Don't append % to count totals (bug #24003).
165 - Don't crash on bad input (bug #24031).
167 - Don't crash if "end data." is not left aligned (bug #24115).
169 - Change default workspace value to 64 MB, to avoid unnecessary
170 disk accesses on modern machines.
174 - Add ".sav" or ".por" suffix to filename when saving with Save_As
177 - Make it possible to reopen the output window on Windows (bug
180 - A POSIX regular expression library is now included and used
181 automatically if the host does not have one or has one that is
184 * Build fixes and changes:
186 - Work around bug in GSL that prevented build with recent GCC
187 versions without manually adding -fgnu89-inline to CFLAGS.
189 - Also warn about missing prerequisites as we encounter them (bug
192 - Distribute necessary files to allow users working from the
193 distributed tarball to configure with --enable-gui-tools.
195 - Append $(EXEEXT_FOR_BUILD) to output file name when building
196 q2c, fixing build problems on Windows.
198 - GSL 1.8 or later is now required.
200 - Build errors with --enable-relocatable were fixed.
202 * The German translations were removed, since native German speakers
203 found them too poor to be useful.
205 Changes from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0:
207 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
208 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
210 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE. This
211 interface allows you to enter data and variable definitions
212 interactively. Commands may be executed in syntax form, or by
213 using the interactive dialog boxes available from the dropdown
216 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
219 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
223 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
224 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
225 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
227 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
228 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
229 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
231 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
232 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
234 Statistical procedure changes:
236 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
237 via least-squares estimation.
239 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
240 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
242 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
245 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
246 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
248 User interface changes:
250 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
251 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
253 * PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
256 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
257 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
258 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
261 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
262 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
263 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
264 executed as if `+' had been specified.
266 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
267 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
268 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
270 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
271 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
272 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
273 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
278 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
279 manual for a full description of the available options.
281 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
282 "make install" will do this for you.
284 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
285 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
287 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
288 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
289 Previously, by default output was written only to file
290 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
291 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
296 - This driver now supports charts in output. Charts are written
297 as separate files that the main output file refers to. By
298 default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
299 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
301 - Configurations are provided that use VT100 (and xterm)
302 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
303 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
307 - The default paper size is now determined using the PAPERSIZE
308 environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale category on
309 systems that support it. If these are not set, the default is
310 now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the default,
311 set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
313 - Font metrics are now read from AFM files, instead of
314 Groff-format metrics files. PostScript fonts can now be
317 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
318 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install
319 AFM files for the standard PostScript fonts, including the
320 ones that the PostScript driver uses by default.
322 - Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
323 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
324 longer needed, or supported.
326 - The PostScript prologue is no longer obtained from the
327 "ps-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file is
328 no longer needed, or supported.
332 - The HTML prologue is no longer obtained from the
333 "html-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file
334 is no longer needed, or supported.
336 Command language changes:
338 * The following commands are new:
340 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files and
341 text data files. It will be extended later to read other
342 types of foreign data.
344 - CD, to change the current directory.
346 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
348 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
351 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
353 - CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
355 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
358 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
360 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
362 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
364 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
366 * PSPP now supports very long string variables (over 255 bytes
369 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
371 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
372 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
373 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
375 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
376 re-implemented in a later release:
378 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
384 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
385 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
386 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
388 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
389 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
391 "Scratch files", a new PSPP extension:
393 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
394 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
395 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
396 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
399 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
400 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
401 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
403 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
404 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
405 reassigned to new files.
407 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
408 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
409 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
410 documentation on those particular commands.
414 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
415 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
416 format of these files.
418 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
419 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
420 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
421 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
424 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
425 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
426 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
427 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
428 native floating point format.
430 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
431 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
432 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
434 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
435 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
437 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
438 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
439 subcommands has been added.
441 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
442 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
443 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
446 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
447 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
449 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
450 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
451 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
455 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
456 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
459 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
460 have been extensively revised and improved.
462 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
465 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
467 Changes in build dependencies:
469 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
472 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
473 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
474 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
476 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
478 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
480 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
482 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
490 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
491 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
494 * T-TEST (re-written).
496 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
497 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
500 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
501 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
502 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
503 third-party software.
505 * SET EPOCH implemented.
507 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
510 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
512 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
513 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
514 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
516 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
517 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
519 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
520 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
522 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
523 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
524 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
527 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
528 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
531 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
534 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
537 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
538 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
539 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
541 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
543 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
545 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
548 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
549 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
552 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
553 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
555 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
559 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
562 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
563 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
565 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
566 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
568 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
571 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
574 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
577 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
578 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
579 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
581 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
583 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
585 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
589 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
591 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
595 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
596 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
598 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
600 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
602 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
606 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
608 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
610 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
611 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
613 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
614 didn't like being the last command in a file.
616 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
617 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
618 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
619 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
621 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
622 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
623 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
625 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
626 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
627 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
629 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
630 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
631 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
634 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
635 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
638 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
639 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
641 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
642 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
643 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
645 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
646 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
647 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
649 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
650 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
651 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
654 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
655 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
658 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
659 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
661 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
664 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
665 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
666 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
668 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
669 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
673 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
674 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
676 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
677 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
678 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
680 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
682 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
686 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
688 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
690 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
691 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
693 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
695 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
696 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
698 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
699 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
701 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
702 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
705 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
706 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
711 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
712 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
713 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
715 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
719 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
721 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
722 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
725 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
726 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
727 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
729 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
731 Procedures now implemented:
732 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
734 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
737 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
738 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
749 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
750 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
753 New command-line features:
754 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
755 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
756 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
757 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
758 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
760 Operator LAG is now implemented.
762 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
764 Table output manager completely rewritten.
766 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
767 reinstall your `devices' file.
769 New output driver for HTML.
771 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
773 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
775 Added Texinfo documentation for:
776 * PSPP system file format
777 * PSPP portable file format
778 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
781 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
782 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
784 Changes for version 0.1.0:
786 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
787 versions, please see ONEWS.
789 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
790 Copyright information:
792 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
793 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
794 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
795 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
797 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
798 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
799 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
803 version-control: never