1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Time-stamp: <2005-07-24 20:23:41 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.
8 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
10 Changes in build dependencies:
12 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
15 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
16 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
17 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
19 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
21 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
23 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
25 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
33 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
34 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
37 * T-TEST (re-written).
39 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
40 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
43 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
44 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
45 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
48 * SET EPOCH implemented.
50 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
53 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
55 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
56 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
57 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
59 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
60 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
62 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
63 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
65 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
66 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
67 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
70 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
71 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
74 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
77 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
80 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
81 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
82 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
84 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
86 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
88 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
91 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
92 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
95 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
96 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
98 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
102 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
105 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
106 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
108 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
109 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
111 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
114 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
117 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
120 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
121 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
122 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
124 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
126 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
128 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
132 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
134 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
138 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
139 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
141 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
143 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
145 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
149 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
151 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
153 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
154 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
156 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
157 didn't like being the last command in a file.
159 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
160 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
161 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
162 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
164 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
165 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
166 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
168 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
169 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
170 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
172 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
173 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
174 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
177 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
178 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
181 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
182 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
184 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
185 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
186 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
188 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
189 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
190 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
192 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
193 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
194 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
197 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
198 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
201 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
202 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
204 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
207 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
208 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
209 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
211 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
212 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
216 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
217 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
219 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
220 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
221 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
223 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
225 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
229 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
231 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
233 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
234 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
236 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
238 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
239 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
241 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
242 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
244 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
245 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
248 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
249 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
254 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
255 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
256 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
258 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
262 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
264 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
265 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
268 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
269 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
270 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
272 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
274 Procedures now implemented:
275 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
277 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
280 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
281 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
292 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
293 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
296 New command-line features:
297 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
298 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
299 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
300 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
301 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
303 Operator LAG is now implemented.
305 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
307 Table output manager completely rewritten.
309 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
310 reinstall your `devices' file.
312 New output driver for HTML.
314 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
316 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
318 Added Texinfo documentation for:
319 * PSPP system file format
320 * PSPP portable file format
321 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
324 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
325 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
327 Changes for version 0.1.0:
329 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
330 versions, please see ONEWS.
332 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
333 Copyright information:
335 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
337 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
338 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
339 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
340 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
342 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
343 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
344 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
348 version-control: never