1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Time-stamp: <2009-07-29 20:52:41 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 0.6.1 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 Changes from 0.6.0 to 0.6.1:
38 * Statistical bug fixes:
40 - Report correct standardized regression coefficients in linear
41 regression output (bug #23567).
43 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
45 - Avoid crash with pie charts (bug #24014).
47 - Don't append % to count totals (bug #24003).
49 - Don't crash on bad input (bug #24031).
51 - Don't crash if "end data." is not left aligned (bug #24115).
53 - Change default workspace value to 64 MB, to avoid unnecessary
54 disk accesses on modern machines.
58 - Add ".sav" or ".por" suffix to filename when saving with Save_As
61 - Make it possible to reopen the output window on Windows (bug
64 - A POSIX regular expression library is now included and used
65 automatically if the host does not have one or has one that is
68 * Build fixes and changes:
70 - Work around bug in GSL that prevented build with recent GCC
71 versions without manually adding -fgnu89-inline to CFLAGS.
73 - Also warn about missing prerequisites as we encounter them (bug
76 - Distribute necessary files to allow users working from the
77 distributed tarball to configure with --enable-gui-tools.
79 - Append $(EXEEXT_FOR_BUILD) to output file name when building
80 q2c, fixing build problems on Windows.
82 - GSL 1.8 or later is now required.
84 - Build errors with --enable-relocatable were fixed.
86 * The German translations were removed, since native German speakers
87 found them too poor to be useful.
89 Changes from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0:
91 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
92 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
94 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE. This
95 interface allows you to enter data and variable definitions
96 interactively. Commands may be executed in syntax form, or by
97 using the interactive dialog boxes available from the dropdown
100 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
103 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
107 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
108 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
109 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
111 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
112 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
113 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
115 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
116 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
118 Statistical procedure changes:
120 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
121 via least-squares estimation.
123 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
124 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
126 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
129 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
130 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
132 User interface changes:
134 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
135 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
137 * PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
140 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
141 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
142 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
145 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
146 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
147 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
148 executed as if `+' had been specified.
150 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
151 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
152 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
154 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
155 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
156 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
157 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
162 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
163 manual for a full description of the available options.
165 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
166 "make install" will do this for you.
168 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
169 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
171 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
172 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
173 Previously, by default output was written only to file
174 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
175 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
180 - This driver now supports charts in output. Charts are written
181 as separate files that the main output file refers to. By
182 default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
183 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
185 - Configurations are provided that use VT100 (and xterm)
186 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
187 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
191 - The default paper size is now determined using the PAPERSIZE
192 environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale category on
193 systems that support it. If these are not set, the default is
194 now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the default,
195 set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
197 - Font metrics are now read from AFM files, instead of
198 Groff-format metrics files. PostScript fonts can now be
201 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
202 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install
203 AFM files for the standard PostScript fonts, including the
204 ones that the PostScript driver uses by default.
206 - Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
207 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
208 longer needed, or supported.
210 - The PostScript prologue is no longer obtained from the
211 "ps-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file is
212 no longer needed, or supported.
216 - The HTML prologue is no longer obtained from the
217 "html-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file
218 is no longer needed, or supported.
220 Command language changes:
222 * The following commands are new:
224 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files and
225 text data files. It will be extended later to read other
226 types of foreign data.
228 - CD, to change the current directory.
230 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
232 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
235 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
237 - CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
239 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
242 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
244 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
246 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
248 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
250 * PSPP now supports very long string variables (over 255 bytes
253 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
255 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
256 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
257 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
259 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
260 re-implemented in a later release:
262 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
268 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
269 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
270 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
272 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
273 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
275 "Scratch files", a new PSPP extension:
277 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
278 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
279 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
280 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
283 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
284 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
285 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
287 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
288 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
289 reassigned to new files.
291 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
292 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
293 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
294 documentation on those particular commands.
298 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
299 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
300 format of these files.
302 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
303 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
304 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
305 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
308 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
309 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
310 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
311 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
312 native floating point format.
314 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
315 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
316 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
318 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
319 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
321 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
322 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
323 subcommands has been added.
325 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
326 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
327 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
330 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
331 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
333 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
334 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
335 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
339 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
340 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
343 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
344 have been extensively revised and improved.
346 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
349 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
351 Changes in build dependencies:
353 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
356 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
357 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
358 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
360 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
362 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
364 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
366 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
374 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
375 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
378 * T-TEST (re-written).
380 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
381 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
384 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
385 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
386 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
387 third-party software.
389 * SET EPOCH implemented.
391 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
394 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
396 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
397 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
398 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
400 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
401 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
403 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
404 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
406 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
407 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
408 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
411 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
412 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
415 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
418 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
421 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
422 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
423 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
425 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
427 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
429 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
432 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
433 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
436 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
437 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
439 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
443 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
446 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
447 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
449 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
450 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
452 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
455 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
458 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
461 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
462 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
463 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
465 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
467 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
469 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
473 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
475 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
479 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
480 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
482 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
484 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
486 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
490 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
492 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
494 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
495 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
497 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
498 didn't like being the last command in a file.
500 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
501 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
502 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
503 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
505 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
506 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
507 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
509 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
510 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
511 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
513 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
514 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
515 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
518 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
519 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
522 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
523 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
525 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
526 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
527 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
529 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
530 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
531 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
533 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
534 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
535 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
538 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
539 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
542 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
543 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
545 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
548 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
549 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
550 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
552 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
553 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
557 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
558 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
560 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
561 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
562 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
564 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
566 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
570 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
572 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
574 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
575 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
577 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
579 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
580 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
582 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
583 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
585 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
586 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
589 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
590 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
595 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
596 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
597 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
599 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
603 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
605 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
606 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
609 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
610 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
611 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
613 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
615 Procedures now implemented:
616 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
618 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
621 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
622 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
633 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
634 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
637 New command-line features:
638 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
639 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
640 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
641 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
642 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
644 Operator LAG is now implemented.
646 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
648 Table output manager completely rewritten.
650 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
651 reinstall your `devices' file.
653 New output driver for HTML.
655 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
657 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
659 Added Texinfo documentation for:
660 * PSPP system file format
661 * PSPP portable file format
662 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
665 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
666 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
668 Changes for version 0.1.0:
670 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
671 versions, please see ONEWS.
673 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
674 Copyright information:
676 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
678 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
679 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
680 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
681 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
683 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
684 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
685 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
689 version-control: never