1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Time-stamp: <2009-07-03 11:02:10 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-pre2:
10 * Statistical bug fixes:
12 - Report correct standard error of the estimate in REGRESSION
15 * Build fixes and changes:
17 - Make running "make" after running "configure" with different
18 settings reliably rebuild version.c.
20 - Cygwin and MinGW build fixes.
22 - Fixes for building with recent gnulib.
24 - The Makefile now honors two new variables, PSPP_LDFLAGS and
25 PSPPIRE_LDFLAGS, that affect linking of the PSPP and PSPPIRE
26 binaries, respectively. This makes building easier for some
29 - Fixes for "configure --enable-relocatable" (bug #25508).
31 * Data file bug fixes and changes:
33 - Fix reading text data files that contain a mix of white space
34 and commas. Now "a ,b" is treated as two fields containing "a"
35 and "b"; previously it was treated as three, with an empty field
38 - Fix writing corrupted .sav files on Windows.
40 - Fix writing corrupted .por files (bug #26034).
42 - Fix reading .por files whose initial lines are not padded out
43 with spaces as expected.
45 - PSPP will no longer issue warnings about some .sav file records
46 or values that it does not understand. These warnings were
47 harmless, but needlessly alarmed some users.
49 - Fix crash reading empty string fields from PostgreSQL databases.
51 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
53 - Users may now control precision of output statistics. Instead
54 of hard coding the width and decimals of output numbers, respect
55 the default format in most instances. Counts are now normally
56 displayed with the format of the weight variable, if any.
58 - Fix crash when an INSERT command specifies the name of a file
59 that does not exist (bug #24569).
61 - Fix crash when CROSSTABS specifies a long-string variable (bug
64 - Fix crash drawing pie charts with many segments.
66 - Fix crash when NUMERIC specifies an invalid format.
68 * PSPPIRE bug fixes and changes:
70 - On Windows, write the output file to the user's home directory
71 instead of the current directory, to better match user
74 - Some data editor fixes.
78 - Fix typo in BINOMIAL section of user manual (bug #25892).
80 Changes from 0.6.0 to 0.6.1:
82 * Statistical bug fixes:
84 - Report correct standardized regression coefficients in linear
85 regression output (bug #23567).
87 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
89 - Avoid crash with pie charts (bug #24014).
91 - Don't append % to count totals (bug #24003).
93 - Don't crash on bad input (bug #24031).
95 - Don't crash if "end data." is not left aligned (bug #24115).
97 - Change default workspace value to 64 MB, to avoid unnecessary
98 disk accesses on modern machines.
102 - Add ".sav" or ".por" suffix to filename when saving with Save_As
105 - Make it possible to reopen the output window on Windows (bug
108 - A POSIX regular expression library is now included and used
109 automatically if the host does not have one or has one that is
112 * Build fixes and changes:
114 - Work around bug in GSL that prevented build with recent GCC
115 versions without manually adding -fgnu89-inline to CFLAGS.
117 - Also warn about missing prerequisites as we encounter them (bug
120 - Distribute necessary files to allow users working from the
121 distributed tarball to configure with --enable-gui-tools.
123 - Append $(EXEEXT_FOR_BUILD) to output file name when building
124 q2c, fixing build problems on Windows.
126 - GSL 1.8 or later is now required.
128 - Build errors with --enable-relocatable were fixed.
130 * The German translations were removed, since native German speakers
131 found them too poor to be useful.
133 Changes from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0:
135 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
136 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
138 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE. This
139 interface allows you to enter data and variable definitions
140 interactively. Commands may be executed in syntax form, or by
141 using the interactive dialog boxes available from the dropdown
144 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
147 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
151 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
152 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
153 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
155 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
156 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
157 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
159 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
160 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
162 Statistical procedure changes:
164 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
165 via least-squares estimation.
167 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
168 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
170 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
173 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
174 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
176 User interface changes:
178 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
179 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
181 * PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
184 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
185 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
186 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
189 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
190 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
191 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
192 executed as if `+' had been specified.
194 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
195 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
196 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
198 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
199 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
200 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
201 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
206 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
207 manual for a full description of the available options.
209 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
210 "make install" will do this for you.
212 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
213 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
215 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
216 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
217 Previously, by default output was written only to file
218 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
219 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
224 - This driver now supports charts in output. Charts are written
225 as separate files that the main output file refers to. By
226 default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
227 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
229 - Configurations are provided that use VT100 (and xterm)
230 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
231 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
235 - The default paper size is now determined using the PAPERSIZE
236 environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale category on
237 systems that support it. If these are not set, the default is
238 now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the default,
239 set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
241 - Font metrics are now read from AFM files, instead of
242 Groff-format metrics files. PostScript fonts can now be
245 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
246 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install
247 AFM files for the standard PostScript fonts, including the
248 ones that the PostScript driver uses by default.
250 - Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
251 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
252 longer needed, or supported.
254 - The PostScript prologue is no longer obtained from the
255 "ps-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file is
256 no longer needed, or supported.
260 - The HTML prologue is no longer obtained from the
261 "html-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file
262 is no longer needed, or supported.
264 Command language changes:
266 * The following commands are new:
268 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files and
269 text data files. It will be extended later to read other
270 types of foreign data.
272 - CD, to change the current directory.
274 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
276 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
279 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
281 - CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
283 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
286 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
288 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
290 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
292 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
294 * PSPP now supports very long string variables (over 255 bytes
297 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
299 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
300 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
301 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
303 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
304 re-implemented in a later release:
306 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
312 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
313 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
314 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
316 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
317 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
319 "Scratch files", a new PSPP extension:
321 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
322 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
323 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
324 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
327 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
328 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
329 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
331 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
332 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
333 reassigned to new files.
335 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
336 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
337 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
338 documentation on those particular commands.
342 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
343 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
344 format of these files.
346 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
347 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
348 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
349 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
352 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
353 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
354 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
355 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
356 native floating point format.
358 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
359 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
360 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
362 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
363 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
365 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
366 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
367 subcommands has been added.
369 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
370 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
371 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
374 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
375 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
377 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
378 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
379 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
383 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
384 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
387 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
388 have been extensively revised and improved.
390 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
393 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
395 Changes in build dependencies:
397 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
400 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
401 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
402 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
404 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
406 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
408 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
410 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
418 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
419 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
422 * T-TEST (re-written).
424 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
425 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
428 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
429 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
430 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
431 third-party software.
433 * SET EPOCH implemented.
435 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
438 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
440 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
441 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
442 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
444 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
445 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
447 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
448 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
450 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
451 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
452 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
455 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
456 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
459 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
462 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
465 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
466 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
467 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
469 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
471 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
473 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
476 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
477 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
480 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
481 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
483 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
487 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
490 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
491 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
493 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
494 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
496 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
499 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
502 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
505 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
506 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
507 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
509 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
511 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
513 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
517 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
519 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
523 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
524 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
526 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
528 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
530 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
534 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
536 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
538 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
539 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
541 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
542 didn't like being the last command in a file.
544 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
545 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
546 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
547 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
549 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
550 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
551 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
553 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
554 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
555 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
557 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
558 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
559 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
562 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
563 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
566 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
567 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
569 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
570 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
571 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
573 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
574 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
575 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
577 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
578 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
579 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
582 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
583 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
586 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
587 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
589 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
592 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
593 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
594 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
596 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
597 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
601 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
602 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
604 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
605 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
606 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
608 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
610 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
614 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
616 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
618 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
619 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
621 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
623 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
624 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
626 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
627 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
629 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
630 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
633 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
634 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
639 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
640 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
641 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
643 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
647 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
649 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
650 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
653 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
654 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
655 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
657 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
659 Procedures now implemented:
660 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
662 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
665 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
666 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
677 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
678 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
681 New command-line features:
682 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
683 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
684 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
685 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
686 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
688 Operator LAG is now implemented.
690 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
692 Table output manager completely rewritten.
694 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
695 reinstall your `devices' file.
697 New output driver for HTML.
699 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
701 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
703 Added Texinfo documentation for:
704 * PSPP system file format
705 * PSPP portable file format
706 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
709 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
710 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
712 Changes for version 0.1.0:
714 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
715 versions, please see ONEWS.
717 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
718 Copyright information:
720 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
721 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
722 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
723 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
725 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
726 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
727 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
731 version-control: never