1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Time-stamp: <2009-07-16 20:35:22 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 0.6.1 to 0.6.2-pre5:
10 * Internationalization:
12 - A translation into Dutch is now supplied, thanks to Harry
13 Thijssen and the translationproject.org coordinators.
15 * Statistical bug fixes:
17 - REGRESSION: Report correct standard error of the estimate (bug
20 - T-TEST: Report correct significance of paired sample T-test (bug
21 #26936). Thanks to Mike Griffiths <mike_g50@hotmail.com> for
24 * Build fixes and changes:
26 - Make running "make" after running "configure" with different
27 settings reliably rebuild version.c.
29 - Cygwin and MinGW build fixes.
31 - Fixes for building with recent gnulib.
33 - The Makefile now honors two new variables, PSPP_LDFLAGS and
34 PSPPIRE_LDFLAGS, that affect linking of the PSPP and PSPPIRE
35 binaries, respectively. This makes building easier for some
38 - Fixes for "configure --enable-relocatable" (bug #25508).
40 * Data file bug fixes and changes:
42 - Fix reading text data files that contain a mix of white space
43 and commas. Now "a ,b" is treated as two fields containing "a"
44 and "b"; previously it was treated as three, with an empty field
47 - Fix writing corrupted .sav files on Windows.
49 - Fix writing corrupted .por files (bug #26034).
51 - Fix reading .por files whose initial lines are not padded out
52 with spaces as expected.
54 - PSPP will no longer issue warnings about some .sav file records
55 or values that it does not understand. These warnings were
56 harmless, but needlessly alarmed some users.
58 - Fix crash reading empty string fields from PostgreSQL databases.
60 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
62 - Users may now control precision of output statistics. Instead
63 of hard coding the width and decimals of output numbers, respect
64 the default format in most instances. Counts are now normally
65 displayed with the format of the weight variable, if any.
67 - Fix crash when an INSERT command specifies the name of a file
68 that does not exist (bug #24569).
70 - Fix crash when CROSSTABS specifies a long-string variable (bugs
73 - Fix crash drawing pie charts with many segments.
75 - Fix crash when NUMERIC specifies an invalid format.
77 * PSPPIRE bug fixes and changes:
79 - On Windows, write the output file to the user's home directory
80 instead of the current directory, to better match user
83 - Some data editor fixes.
87 - Fix typo in BINOMIAL section of user manual (bug #25892).
89 Changes from 0.6.0 to 0.6.1:
91 * Statistical bug fixes:
93 - Report correct standardized regression coefficients in linear
94 regression output (bug #23567).
96 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
98 - Avoid crash with pie charts (bug #24014).
100 - Don't append % to count totals (bug #24003).
102 - Don't crash on bad input (bug #24031).
104 - Don't crash if "end data." is not left aligned (bug #24115).
106 - Change default workspace value to 64 MB, to avoid unnecessary
107 disk accesses on modern machines.
111 - Add ".sav" or ".por" suffix to filename when saving with Save_As
114 - Make it possible to reopen the output window on Windows (bug
117 - A POSIX regular expression library is now included and used
118 automatically if the host does not have one or has one that is
121 * Build fixes and changes:
123 - Work around bug in GSL that prevented build with recent GCC
124 versions without manually adding -fgnu89-inline to CFLAGS.
126 - Also warn about missing prerequisites as we encounter them (bug
129 - Distribute necessary files to allow users working from the
130 distributed tarball to configure with --enable-gui-tools.
132 - Append $(EXEEXT_FOR_BUILD) to output file name when building
133 q2c, fixing build problems on Windows.
135 - GSL 1.8 or later is now required.
137 - Build errors with --enable-relocatable were fixed.
139 * The German translations were removed, since native German speakers
140 found them too poor to be useful.
142 Changes from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0:
144 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
145 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
147 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE. This
148 interface allows you to enter data and variable definitions
149 interactively. Commands may be executed in syntax form, or by
150 using the interactive dialog boxes available from the dropdown
153 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
156 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
160 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
161 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
162 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
164 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
165 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
166 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
168 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
169 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
171 Statistical procedure changes:
173 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
174 via least-squares estimation.
176 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
177 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
179 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
182 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
183 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
185 User interface changes:
187 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
188 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
190 * PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
193 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
194 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
195 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
198 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
199 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
200 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
201 executed as if `+' had been specified.
203 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
204 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
205 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
207 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
208 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
209 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
210 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
215 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
216 manual for a full description of the available options.
218 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
219 "make install" will do this for you.
221 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
222 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
224 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
225 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
226 Previously, by default output was written only to file
227 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
228 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
233 - This driver now supports charts in output. Charts are written
234 as separate files that the main output file refers to. By
235 default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
236 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
238 - Configurations are provided that use VT100 (and xterm)
239 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
240 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
244 - The default paper size is now determined using the PAPERSIZE
245 environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale category on
246 systems that support it. If these are not set, the default is
247 now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the default,
248 set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
250 - Font metrics are now read from AFM files, instead of
251 Groff-format metrics files. PostScript fonts can now be
254 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
255 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install
256 AFM files for the standard PostScript fonts, including the
257 ones that the PostScript driver uses by default.
259 - Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
260 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
261 longer needed, or supported.
263 - The PostScript prologue is no longer obtained from the
264 "ps-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file is
265 no longer needed, or supported.
269 - The HTML prologue is no longer obtained from the
270 "html-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file
271 is no longer needed, or supported.
273 Command language changes:
275 * The following commands are new:
277 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files and
278 text data files. It will be extended later to read other
279 types of foreign data.
281 - CD, to change the current directory.
283 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
285 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
288 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
290 - CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
292 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
295 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
297 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
299 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
301 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
303 * PSPP now supports very long string variables (over 255 bytes
306 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
308 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
309 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
310 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
312 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
313 re-implemented in a later release:
315 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
321 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
322 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
323 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
325 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
326 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
328 "Scratch files", a new PSPP extension:
330 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
331 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
332 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
333 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
336 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
337 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
338 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
340 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
341 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
342 reassigned to new files.
344 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
345 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
346 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
347 documentation on those particular commands.
351 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
352 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
353 format of these files.
355 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
356 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
357 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
358 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
361 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
362 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
363 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
364 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
365 native floating point format.
367 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
368 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
369 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
371 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
372 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
374 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
375 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
376 subcommands has been added.
378 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
379 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
380 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
383 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
384 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
386 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
387 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
388 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
392 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
393 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
396 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
397 have been extensively revised and improved.
399 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
402 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
404 Changes in build dependencies:
406 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
409 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
410 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
411 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
413 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
415 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
417 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
419 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
427 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
428 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
431 * T-TEST (re-written).
433 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
434 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
437 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
438 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
439 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
440 third-party software.
442 * SET EPOCH implemented.
444 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
447 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
449 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
450 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
451 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
453 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
454 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
456 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
457 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
459 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
460 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
461 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
464 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
465 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
468 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
471 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
474 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
475 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
476 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
478 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
480 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
482 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
485 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
486 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
489 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
490 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
492 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
496 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
499 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
500 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
502 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
503 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
505 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
508 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
511 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
514 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
515 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
516 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
518 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
520 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
522 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
526 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
528 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
532 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
533 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
535 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
537 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
539 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
543 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
545 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
547 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
548 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
550 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
551 didn't like being the last command in a file.
553 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
554 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
555 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
556 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
558 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
559 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
560 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
562 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
563 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
564 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
566 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
567 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
568 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
571 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
572 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
575 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
576 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
578 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
579 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
580 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
582 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
583 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
584 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
586 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
587 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
588 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
591 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
592 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
595 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
596 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
598 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
601 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
602 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
603 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
605 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
606 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
610 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
611 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
613 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
614 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
615 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
617 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
619 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
623 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
625 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
627 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
628 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
630 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
632 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
633 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
635 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
636 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
638 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
639 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
642 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
643 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
648 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
649 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
650 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
652 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
656 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
658 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
659 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
662 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
663 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
664 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
666 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
668 Procedures now implemented:
669 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
671 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
674 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
675 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
686 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
687 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
690 New command-line features:
691 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
692 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
693 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
694 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
695 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
697 Operator LAG is now implemented.
699 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
701 Table output manager completely rewritten.
703 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
704 reinstall your `devices' file.
706 New output driver for HTML.
708 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
710 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
712 Added Texinfo documentation for:
713 * PSPP system file format
714 * PSPP portable file format
715 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
718 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
719 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
721 Changes for version 0.1.0:
723 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
724 versions, please see ONEWS.
726 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
727 Copyright information:
729 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
730 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
731 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
732 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
734 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
735 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
736 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
740 version-control: never