1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Time-stamp: <2009-10-24 08:12:04 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 Changes from 0.7.1 to 0.7.2:
17 * Updated Perl module interface.
19 * Value labels for long string variables are now supported.
21 * Missing values for long string variables are now supported.
23 Changes from 0.7.0 to 0.7.1:
25 * Added a perl module to facilitate reading and writing of pspp system
26 files from perl programs.
28 Changes from 0.6.2-pre6 to 0.7.0:
30 * Custom variable and data file attributes are now supported.
31 Commands VARIABLE ATTRIBUTE and DATAFILE ATTRIBUTE have been added
32 for setting and clear attributes. Support for attributes has also
33 been added to commands that read and write system files, such as
34 SAVE and GET, as well as to the DISPLAY command.
36 * Numererous improvements to the Graphical User Interface have
37 made. Notable improvements include:
39 - Non-Ascii characters in strings, labels and variable names are
42 - A "Split Window" function is available, which makes it easier to
43 see different parts of a large data file.
45 - Data files can now be opened by specifing their name as the first
46 argument. This means that on a properly configured desktop, double
47 clicking on an icon will open the file.
50 * New statistical procedures:
55 NPAR TESTS now supports the WILCOXON and SIGN subcommands.
57 The CROSSTABS command has been completely re-implemented to fix numerous bugs.
59 * Three new commands to combine data files have been added: MATCH FILES,
62 * A tutorial chapter has been added to the user manual.
65 Changes from 0.6.1 to 0.6.2-pre6:
69 - Dutch, thanks to Harry Thijssen.
71 - Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Michel Boaventura.
73 Thanks for translations are also due to the coordinators at
74 translationproject.org.
76 * Statistical bug fixes:
78 - REGRESSION: Report correct standard error of the estimate (bug
81 - T-TEST: Report correct significance of paired sample T-test in
82 the common case (bug #26936) and corner cases. Thanks to Mike
83 Griffiths and Matej Cepl for reporting these bugs.
85 * Build fixes and changes:
87 - Make running "make" after running "configure" with different
88 settings reliably rebuild version.c.
90 - Cygwin and MinGW build fixes.
92 - Fixes for building with recent gnulib.
94 - The Makefile now honors two new variables, PSPP_LDFLAGS and
95 PSPPIRE_LDFLAGS, that affect linking of the PSPP and PSPPIRE
96 binaries, respectively. This makes building easier for some
99 - Fixes for "configure --enable-relocatable" (bug #25508).
101 * Data file bug fixes and changes:
103 - Fix reading text data files that contain a mix of white space
104 and commas. Now "a ,b" is treated as two fields containing "a"
105 and "b"; previously it was treated as three, with an empty field
108 - Fix writing corrupted .sav files on Windows.
110 - Fix writing corrupted .por files (bug #26034).
112 - Fix reading .por files whose initial lines are not padded out
113 with spaces as expected.
115 - PSPP will no longer issue warnings about some .sav file records
116 or values that it does not understand. These warnings were
117 harmless, but needlessly alarmed some users.
119 - Fix crash reading empty string fields from PostgreSQL databases.
121 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
123 - Users may now control precision of output statistics. Instead
124 of hard coding the width and decimals of output numbers, respect
125 the default format in most instances. Counts are now normally
126 displayed with the format of the weight variable, if any.
128 - Fix crash when an INSERT command specifies the name of a file
129 that does not exist (bug #24569).
131 - Fix crash when CROSSTABS specifies a long-string variable (bugs
134 - Fix crash drawing pie charts with many segments.
136 - Fix crash when NUMERIC specifies an invalid format.
138 * PSPPIRE bug fixes and changes:
140 - On Windows, write the output file to the user's home directory
141 instead of the current directory, to better match user
144 - Some data editor fixes.
148 - Fix typo in BINOMIAL section of user manual (bug #25892).
150 Changes from 0.6.0 to 0.6.1:
152 * Statistical bug fixes:
154 - Report correct standardized regression coefficients in linear
155 regression output (bug #23567).
157 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
159 - Avoid crash with pie charts (bug #24014).
161 - Don't append % to count totals (bug #24003).
163 - Don't crash on bad input (bug #24031).
165 - Don't crash if "end data." is not left aligned (bug #24115).
167 - Change default workspace value to 64 MB, to avoid unnecessary
168 disk accesses on modern machines.
172 - Add ".sav" or ".por" suffix to filename when saving with Save_As
175 - Make it possible to reopen the output window on Windows (bug
178 - A POSIX regular expression library is now included and used
179 automatically if the host does not have one or has one that is
182 * Build fixes and changes:
184 - Work around bug in GSL that prevented build with recent GCC
185 versions without manually adding -fgnu89-inline to CFLAGS.
187 - Also warn about missing prerequisites as we encounter them (bug
190 - Distribute necessary files to allow users working from the
191 distributed tarball to configure with --enable-gui-tools.
193 - Append $(EXEEXT_FOR_BUILD) to output file name when building
194 q2c, fixing build problems on Windows.
196 - GSL 1.8 or later is now required.
198 - Build errors with --enable-relocatable were fixed.
200 * The German translations were removed, since native German speakers
201 found them too poor to be useful.
203 Changes from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0:
205 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
206 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
208 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE. This
209 interface allows you to enter data and variable definitions
210 interactively. Commands may be executed in syntax form, or by
211 using the interactive dialog boxes available from the dropdown
214 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
217 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
221 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
222 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
223 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
225 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
226 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
227 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
229 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
230 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
232 Statistical procedure changes:
234 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
235 via least-squares estimation.
237 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
238 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
240 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
243 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
244 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
246 User interface changes:
248 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
249 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
251 * PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
254 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
255 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
256 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
259 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
260 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
261 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
262 executed as if `+' had been specified.
264 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
265 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
266 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
268 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
269 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
270 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
271 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
276 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
277 manual for a full description of the available options.
279 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
280 "make install" will do this for you.
282 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
283 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
285 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
286 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
287 Previously, by default output was written only to file
288 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
289 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
294 - This driver now supports charts in output. Charts are written
295 as separate files that the main output file refers to. By
296 default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
297 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
299 - Configurations are provided that use VT100 (and xterm)
300 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
301 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
305 - The default paper size is now determined using the PAPERSIZE
306 environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale category on
307 systems that support it. If these are not set, the default is
308 now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the default,
309 set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
311 - Font metrics are now read from AFM files, instead of
312 Groff-format metrics files. PostScript fonts can now be
315 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
316 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install
317 AFM files for the standard PostScript fonts, including the
318 ones that the PostScript driver uses by default.
320 - Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
321 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
322 longer needed, or supported.
324 - The PostScript prologue is no longer obtained from the
325 "ps-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file is
326 no longer needed, or supported.
330 - The HTML prologue is no longer obtained from the
331 "html-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file
332 is no longer needed, or supported.
334 Command language changes:
336 * The following commands are new:
338 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files and
339 text data files. It will be extended later to read other
340 types of foreign data.
342 - CD, to change the current directory.
344 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
346 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
349 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
351 - CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
353 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
356 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
358 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
360 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
362 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
364 * PSPP now supports very long string variables (over 255 bytes
367 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
369 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
370 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
371 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
373 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
374 re-implemented in a later release:
376 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
382 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
383 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
384 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
386 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
387 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
389 "Scratch files", a new PSPP extension:
391 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
392 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
393 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
394 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
397 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
398 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
399 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
401 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
402 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
403 reassigned to new files.
405 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
406 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
407 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
408 documentation on those particular commands.
412 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
413 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
414 format of these files.
416 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
417 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
418 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
419 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
422 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
423 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
424 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
425 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
426 native floating point format.
428 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
429 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
430 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
432 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
433 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
435 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
436 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
437 subcommands has been added.
439 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
440 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
441 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
444 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
445 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
447 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
448 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
449 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
453 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
454 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
457 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
458 have been extensively revised and improved.
460 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
463 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
465 Changes in build dependencies:
467 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
470 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
471 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
472 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
474 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
476 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
478 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
480 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
488 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
489 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
492 * T-TEST (re-written).
494 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
495 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
498 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
499 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
500 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
501 third-party software.
503 * SET EPOCH implemented.
505 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
508 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
510 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
511 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
512 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
514 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
515 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
517 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
518 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
520 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
521 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
522 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
525 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
526 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
529 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
532 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
535 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
536 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
537 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
539 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
541 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
543 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
546 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
547 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
550 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
551 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
553 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
557 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
560 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
561 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
563 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
564 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
566 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
569 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
572 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
575 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
576 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
577 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
579 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
581 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
583 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
587 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
589 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
593 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
594 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
596 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
598 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
600 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
604 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
606 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
608 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
609 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
611 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
612 didn't like being the last command in a file.
614 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
615 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
616 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
617 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
619 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
620 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
621 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
623 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
624 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
625 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
627 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
628 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
629 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
632 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
633 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
636 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
637 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
639 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
640 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
641 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
643 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
644 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
645 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
647 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
648 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
649 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
652 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
653 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
656 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
657 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
659 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
662 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
663 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
664 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
666 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
667 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
671 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
672 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
674 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
675 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
676 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
678 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
680 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
684 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
686 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
688 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
689 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
691 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
693 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
694 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
696 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
697 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
699 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
700 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
703 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
704 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
709 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
710 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
711 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
713 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
717 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
719 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
720 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
723 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
724 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
725 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
727 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
729 Procedures now implemented:
730 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
732 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
735 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
736 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
747 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
748 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
751 New command-line features:
752 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
753 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
754 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
755 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
756 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
758 Operator LAG is now implemented.
760 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
762 Table output manager completely rewritten.
764 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
765 reinstall your `devices' file.
767 New output driver for HTML.
769 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
771 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
773 Added Texinfo documentation for:
774 * PSPP system file format
775 * PSPP portable file format
776 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
779 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
780 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
782 Changes for version 0.1.0:
784 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
785 versions, please see ONEWS.
787 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
788 Copyright information:
790 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
791 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
792 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
793 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
795 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
796 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
797 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
801 version-control: never