1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Time-stamp: <2007-09-22 17:48:06 blp>
3 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end for copying conditions.
6 Please send PSPP bug reports to bug-gnu-pspp@gnu.org.
10 The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General Public
11 License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
13 Changes in build dependencies:
15 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
16 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
17 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
19 The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed. You
20 may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following TEMPORARY, which
23 The default paper size for the PostScript driver is now determined
24 using the PAPERSIZE environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale
25 category on systems that support it. If these are not set, the
26 default is now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the
27 default, set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
29 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
32 Changes since 0.4.0 to 0.4.1:
34 Added support for very long string variables (over 255 bytes long).
38 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
39 manual for a full description of the available options.
41 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
42 "make install" will do this for you.
44 * The PostScript driver now obtains font metrics from AFM files,
45 instead of Groff-format metrics files. It can now embed
46 PostScript fonts in its output.
48 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
49 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install AFM
50 files for the standard PostScript files, including the ones that
51 the PostScript driver uses by default.
53 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
55 * CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
59 * XEXPORT (a PSPP extension).
63 A new PSPP extension called "scratch files" has been implemented.
64 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
65 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
66 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
67 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
70 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
71 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
72 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
74 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
75 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
76 reassigned to new files.
78 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
79 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
80 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
81 documentation on those particular commands.
83 PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
86 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
88 Changes in build dependencies:
90 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
93 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
94 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
95 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
97 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
99 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
101 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
103 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
111 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
112 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
115 * T-TEST (re-written).
117 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
118 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
121 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
122 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
123 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
124 third-party software.
126 * SET EPOCH implemented.
128 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
131 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
133 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
134 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
135 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
137 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
138 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
140 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
141 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
143 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
144 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
145 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
148 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
149 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
152 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
155 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
158 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
159 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
160 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
162 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
164 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
166 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
169 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
170 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
173 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
174 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
176 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
180 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
183 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
184 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
186 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
187 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
189 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
192 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
195 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
198 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
199 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
200 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
202 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
204 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
206 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
210 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
212 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
216 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
217 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
219 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
221 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
223 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
227 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
229 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
231 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
232 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
234 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
235 didn't like being the last command in a file.
237 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
238 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
239 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
240 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
242 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
243 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
244 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
246 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
247 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
248 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
250 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
251 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
252 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
255 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
256 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
259 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
260 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
262 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
263 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
264 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
266 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
267 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
268 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
270 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
271 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
272 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
275 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
276 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
279 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
280 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
282 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
285 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
286 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
287 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
289 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
290 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
294 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
295 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
297 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
298 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
299 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
301 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
303 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
307 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
309 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
311 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
312 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
314 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
316 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
317 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
319 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
320 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
322 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
323 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
326 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
327 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
332 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
333 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
334 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
336 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
340 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
342 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
343 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
346 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
347 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
348 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
350 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
352 Procedures now implemented:
353 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
355 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
358 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
359 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
370 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
371 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
374 New command-line features:
375 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
376 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
377 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
378 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
379 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
381 Operator LAG is now implemented.
383 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
385 Table output manager completely rewritten.
387 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
388 reinstall your `devices' file.
390 New output driver for HTML.
392 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
394 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
396 Added Texinfo documentation for:
397 * PSPP system file format
398 * PSPP portable file format
399 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
402 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
403 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
405 Changes for version 0.1.0:
407 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
408 versions, please see ONEWS.
410 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
411 Copyright information:
413 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
415 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
416 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
417 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
418 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
420 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
421 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
422 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
426 version-control: never