1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996-2000, 2008-2016, 2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send PSPP bug reports to bug-gnu-pspp@gnu.org.
7 Changes from 1.0.1 to 1.1.0:
9 * New experimental command SAVE DATA COLLECTION to save MDD files.
13 - zlib is now a required dependency. (Previously it was optional.)
15 * The code implementing the sheet rendering has been removed. Instead we
16 use a third party library: spread-sheet-widget.
18 * The "NOMISSING" keyword when generating syntax for piecharts in the
19 frequencies command was omitted. This has been corrected.
21 Changes from 1.0.0 to 1.0.1:
23 * Bug fixes, including fixes for CVE-2017-12958, CVE-2017-12959,
24 CVE-2017-12960, and CVE-2017-12961.
26 Changes from 0.11.0 to 1.0.0:
28 * Translation updates.
30 Changes from 0.10.2 to 0.11.0:
32 * The REGRESSION command now has a /ORIGIN subcommand to perform
33 regression through the origin.
35 * The FACTOR command can now analyse matrix files prepared with MATRIX DATA.
37 * The FACTOR command can now print the anti-image matrices.
39 * The MATRIX DATA command has been added.
41 * Some inappropriate properties in selection dialogs have been corrected.
43 * A bug which could cause the HTML driver to go into a tight loop
46 * An error in the FREQUENCIES procedure, where the word "Mean" was
47 printed when "Variance" was appropriate has been fixed.
49 * The ncurses library is no longer required or used.
51 * A bug where the Mann-Whitney test would give misleading results
52 if run on multiple variables and MISSING=ANALAYSIS was specified
55 * Gtk+3.14.5 or later must now be used when building.
57 * Graphical user interface changes:
59 ** There is a new menu: Edit|Options
61 ** The Non Parametric Statistics Menu has a new item: "K Independent Samples".
63 ** Dialog boxes can now be canceled using the <Escape> key.
65 * The AUTORECODE command now accepts an optional / before INTO.
67 * The short form of the VECTOR command can now create string variables.
69 * Bug fixes, including fixes for CVE-2017-10791 and CVE-2017-10792.
71 Changes from 0.10.1 to 0.10.2:
73 * CROSSTABS implements a new COUNT subcommand to round case or cell
76 * Help will be opened as HTML in default browser if yelp
79 * When plotting scatterplots with only one dataset (the simple case)
80 the colour used for the dataset is now black. The previous default
81 from the Tango palette was too faint to see easily.
83 * The varible info dialog could previously only paste a single variable.
84 Now it can paste multiple variables.
86 * Bug fixes, including the following:
88 - T-test with independent samples GUI crashed with string
89 type variable as group variable.
91 - The variable info dialog showed the previous selected variable
92 superimposed with the currently selected one.
94 - The GLM command did not properly deal with missing values. This
97 Changes from 0.10.0 to 0.10.1:
99 * Bug fixes, including the following:
101 - A bug where certain dialog boxes could not be properly populated
104 - Various commands have been hardened against errors when called
107 * Translation updates. Thanks to our translators!
109 Changes from 0.8.5 to 0.10.0:
111 * The QUICK CLUSTER command has a /PRINT subcommand which shows
112 the initial cluster centres and the final cluster membership of
113 each case. The clustering algorithm has also been updated, so
114 as to produce better separated clusters.
116 * A Russian localisation has been contributed.
118 * The GRAPH command now has a /BAR subcommand to draw barcharts.
120 * If the DECIMAL character is set to COMMA then the ',' character
121 will not be treated as a separator by DATA LIST.
123 * The graphical user interface (psppire) has been changed as follows:
125 - It now uses Gtk+ version 3 instead of version 2. Accordingly, it has a
126 somewhat different look and feel.
128 - There is now a Graphs menu to access the GRAPH command.
130 - The status of dialog box widgets are now preserved between calls
131 to the same dialog box for the same dataset.
133 - The dialog box for the Logistic Regression command will now
134 infer that string variables or any varible with a "measure"
135 of Nominal or Ordinal are to be treated as categorical variables
136 and will generate syntax accordingly.
138 * The pspp-convert utility can now decrypt encrypted syntax files.
139 The encrypted syntax file format is unacceptably insecure, so to
140 discourage its use PSPP and PSPPIRE do not directly read or write
147 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
149 - REPLACE, for search-and-replace of one string with another.
151 - STRUNC, to truncate a string and trim trailing spaces.
153 - MEDIAN, to compute the median of its arguments.
155 - The TRUNC function in expressions now supports additional arguments
156 for truncating to values other than integers and to indicate a level
157 of rounding fuzz. The default rounding fuzz may now be controlled
158 and displayed with SET FUZZBITS and SHOW FUZZBITS, respectively.
160 * Bug fixes, including the following notable ones:
162 - The correlation coefficient in the paired samples t-test
163 procedure is now correctly calculated when presented with
166 - The ESCAPE subcommand has been removed from GET DATA /TYPE=TXT.
167 For compatibility, the behavior that ESCAPE enabled is now the
168 default and only supported behavior.
170 - Rendering of the variable and data sheets in right-to-left locales
173 - The Mann-Whitney test, when run on a dataset containing values
174 of the group variable, other than those defining the test groups,
175 would incorrectly calculate the ranks. This has been corrected.
177 * The IMPORTCASES subcommand on GET DATA is now ignored, for
180 Changes from 0.8.4 to 0.8.5:
182 * The FREQUENCIES and CROSSTABS commands can now generate barcharts.
184 * The FACTOR command can now perform PROMAX rotations.
186 * SPSS/PC+ system files are now supported on GET and other commands
187 that read SPSS system files. The pspp-convert program can now read
188 SPSS/PC+ system files. Writing the obsolete SPSS/PC+ system file
189 format is not supported.
191 * SYSFILE INFO can now read SPSS/PC+ system files and SPSS portable
194 * FREQUENCIES: A bug was fixed where an assertion failure occurred
195 when an empty dataset was presented.
197 * The GRAPH command is now available. Initially it supports
198 scatterplots and histograms.
200 * The RND operator in expressions now supports additional operands
201 for rounding to values other than integers and to indicate a level
202 of rounding fuzz. The default rounding fuzz may now be controlled
203 and displayed with SET FUZZBITS and SHOW FUZZBITS, respectively.
205 Changes from 0.8.3 to 0.8.4:
207 * Formatting of SYSFILE INFO output was made easier to read.
209 * Bug fixes, including the following notable ones:
211 - FREQUENCIES works properly for string variables. (This bug was
212 introduced in 0.8.2.)
214 - CROSSTABS now correctly computes all of the measures that it
215 offers. Some measures have been removed because they were not
218 - The NPAR TESTS calculation of significance for the RUNS
219 subcommand has been corrected.
221 - Planned comparisons in ONEWAY ANOVA now correctly handle negative
224 - The COUNT command now correctly treats missing values as
227 - Conformance fixes to Open Document output format.
229 Changes from 0.8.2 to 0.8.3:
231 * Independent T-Tests displayed the standard error of the difference
232 and the confidence interval for the unequal variances case, where
233 the equal variances case should have been. This has been fixed.
235 * REGRESSION now recognises /STATISTICS=CI(x) which causes confidence
236 intervals for the coefficients to be printed.
238 * When DESCRIPTIVES calculates Z scores, it now omits cases filtered
239 by the current FILTER settings.
241 * PSPPIRE graphical user interface improvements:
243 - Dialog boxes with source variable lists can now choose the sort
244 order; right click and select from the popup menu.
246 - File|Open now allows an encoding to be selected for opening
249 - File|Display Data File Information|External File... now allows an
250 encoding to be selected.
252 - A problem with the Means dialog has been resolved (bug #41433).
254 - Several problems related to the input of spreadsheets have been
255 fixed (bug #41657, #41620
257 * System file related improvements:
259 - With ENCODING="DETECT", SYSFILE INFO can now help the user to
260 pick an encoding for reading a system file that does not identify
263 - SYSFILE INFO now accepts an ENCODING subcommand to specify the
264 character encoding of string data in the system file.
266 - Variable labels over 255 bytes long are now accepted without
267 truncation (bug #41863).
269 - System files that contain duplicate variable names may now be
270 read successfully (bug #41475).
272 Changes from 0.8.1 to 0.8.2:
274 * Charts are now rendered with colours from the Tango palette instead
275 of fully saturated primaries.
277 * Support for new system file variants:
279 - PSPP can now read and write ZCOMPRESSED system files, which
280 compress data much more effectively than older "compressed"
281 files. (The older format is still supported.)
283 - PSPP can now decrypt encrypted system files, using the new
284 pspp-convert utility. The encrypted system file format is
285 unacceptably insecure, so to discourage its use PSPP and PSPPIRE
286 do not directly read or write this format.
288 * Missing values for long string variables are now read from and
289 written to system files in an SPSS-compatible fashion.
291 (Earlier versions of PSPP that supported missing values for long
292 string variables wrote them to system files in an SPSS-incompatible
293 way. To fix the problem, read the system file with this version of
294 PSPP and then save a new copy of it.)
296 * pspp-convert, a new standalone utility for converting SPSS system
297 and portable files to other formats, is now included. The initial
298 version supports comma-separated value files as output format.
299 pspp-convert can also decrypt encrypted system files.
303 - zlib is now a required dependency. (Previously it was optional.)
305 Changes from 0.8.0 to 0.8.1:
311 * Changes to existing commands:
313 - CROSSTABS: The requirement that one expected count must be less than five
314 before Fishers Exact Test will be reported has been removed.
316 * PSPPIRE graphical user interface improvements:
318 - A new set of icons has been contributed.
320 - Syntax windows now parse syntax in "auto" mode, which in practice
321 should mean that both "batch" and "interactive" syntax now works,
322 instead of just "interactive" syntax.
324 - The variable pane of data windows now include a Role column.
328 - System files written by IBM SPSS 21 are now read without warnings.
330 - System files written by "VOXCO INTERVIEWER 4.3" are now read
333 - PSPPIRE should now more gracefully handle syntax files that contain
336 Changes from 0.6.2 to 0.8.0:
342 - DATAFILE ATTRIBUTES
349 - LOGISTIC REGRESSION
353 - PRESERVE and RESTORE
357 - SAVE TRANSLATE to CSV and tab-delimited files
359 - VARIABLE ATTRIBUTES
361 * Changes to existing commands:
363 - AUTORECODE has a new GROUP subcommand.
365 - CROSSTABS has been re-implemented to fix numerous bugs.
367 - EXAMINE: /MISSING=LISTWISE is now the default.
369 - DO REPEAT command has been reimplemented. Now, when DO REPEAT
370 contains an INCLUDE or INSERT command, substitutions are not
371 applied to the included file.
373 - FILE HANDLE has a new ENDS subcommand to select CR or CRLF new-lines.
375 - HOST has been updated to use more modern syntax.
377 - Most commands that work with data files now support a new
380 - MISSING VALUES can now assign missing values to long string
383 - ONEWAY: the POSTHOC subcommand is now implemented.
385 - The following new subcommands to NPAR TESTS have been implemented:
386 COCHRAN, FRIEDMAN, JONCKHEERE-TERPSTRA, KENDALL, KRUSKAL-WALLIS, MANN-WHITNEY,
387 MCNEMAR, SIGN, WILCOXON, and RUNS
389 - SET and SHOW no longer have ENDCMD, NULLINE, PROMPT, CPROMPT, and
390 DPROMPT subcommands. The defaults are now fixed values.
392 - SHOW now has a JOURNAL subcommand, to show the location of the
395 - VALUE LABELS can now assign value labels to long string
398 * Other language changes:
400 - The new DATASET commands replace the "scratch file" PSPP
401 extension, which is no longer supported.
403 - Strings may now include arbitrary Unicode code points specified
404 in hexadecimal, using the syntax U'hhhh'. For example, Unicode
405 code point U+1D11E, the musical G clef character, may be
406 expressed as U'1D11E'.
408 See the "Tokens" section in the PSPP manual for more information.
410 - In previous versions of PSPP, in a string expressed in
411 hexadecimal with X'hh' syntax, the hexadecimal digits expressed
412 bytes in the locale encoding. In this version of PSPP, X'hh'
413 syntax always expresses bytes in UTF-8 encoding.
415 See the "Tokens" section in the PSPP manual for more information.
417 * PSPPIRE graphical user interface improvements:
419 - Added support for non-ASCII characters in strings, labels and
422 - A "Split Window" function is available, which makes it easier to
423 see different parts of a large data file.
425 - Data files can now be opened by specifing their name as the first
426 argument. This means that on a properly configured desktop, double
427 clicking on an icon will open the file.
429 - Foreign formats, such as Gnumeric, OpenDocument and CSV can be imported
430 via using an "intelligent" application assistant dialog.
434 - The new "cairo" output driver supports output in PostScript, PDF,
435 and SVG formats. Its functionality is a superset of that of the
436 "postscript" driver, which has been removed. You must have Cairo
437 and Pango installed to build the "cairo" driver.
439 - Charts are now produced with Cairo and Pango, instead of libplot.
440 Without them, the new graphing features will not work. If you do
441 not have Cairo and Pango installed, you must run `configure' with
444 - The plain text output driver now properly supports multibyte UTF-8
445 characters, including double-width characters and combining
448 - Output to OpenDocument format is now supported.
450 - The HTML output is much improved.
452 * The "pspp" program has a new option --batch (or -b) that selects
453 "batch" syntax mode. In previous versions of PSPP this syntax mode
454 was the default. Now a new "auto" syntax mode is the default. In
455 "auto" mode, PSPP interprets most syntax files correctly regardless
456 of their intended syntax mode.
458 See the "Syntax Variants" section in the PSPP manual for more
461 * The "pspp" program has a new option --syntax-encoding that
462 specifies the encoding for syntax files listed on the command line,
463 as well as the default encoding for syntax files included with
464 INCLUDE or INSERT. The default is to accept the system locale
465 encoding, UTF-8, UTF-16, or UTF-32, automatically detecting which
466 one the system file uses.
468 See the documentation for the INSERT command in the PSPP manual for
471 * Text data files that PRINT and WRITE creates now use the system
472 native line ends by default (CRLF on Windows, LF only elsewhere).
473 Use the new ENDS subcommand on FILE HANDLE to override the default.
475 * A new Perl module allows Perl programs to read and write PSPP
478 * A tutorial chapter has been added to the user manual.
480 Changes from 0.6.1 to 0.6.2:
484 - Dutch, thanks to Harry Thijssen.
486 - Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Michel Boaventura.
488 Thanks for translations are also due to the coordinators at
489 translationproject.org.
491 * Statistical bug fixes:
493 - REGRESSION: Report correct standard error of the estimate (bug
496 - T-TEST: Report correct significance of paired sample T-test in
497 the common case (bug #26936) and corner cases. Thanks to Mike
498 Griffiths and Matej Cepl for reporting these bugs.
500 * Build fixes and changes:
502 - Fix build with GTK+ 2.17.4 and later.
504 - Make running "make" after running "configure" with different
505 settings reliably rebuild version.c.
507 - Cygwin and MinGW build fixes.
509 - Fixes for building with recent gnulib.
511 - The Makefile now honors two new variables, PSPP_LDFLAGS and
512 PSPPIRE_LDFLAGS, that affect linking of the PSPP and PSPPIRE
513 binaries, respectively. This makes building easier for some
516 - Fixes for "configure --enable-relocatable" (bug #25508).
518 * Data file bug fixes and changes:
520 - Fix reading text data files that contain a mix of white space
521 and commas. Now "a ,b" is treated as two fields containing "a"
522 and "b"; previously it was treated as three, with an empty field
525 - Fix writing corrupted .sav files on Windows.
527 - Fix writing variable labels longer than 252 bytes to save files.
528 Thanks to Robert Westlund for reporting this bug.
530 - Fix writing corrupted .por files (bug #26034).
532 - Fix reading .por files whose initial lines are not padded out
533 with spaces as expected.
535 - PSPP will no longer issue warnings about some .sav file records
536 or values that it does not understand. These warnings were
537 harmless, but needlessly alarmed some users.
539 - Fix crash reading empty string fields from PostgreSQL databases.
541 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
543 - Users may now control precision of output statistics. Instead
544 of hard coding the width and decimals of output numbers, respect
545 the default format in most instances. Counts are now normally
546 displayed with the format of the weight variable, if any.
548 - Fix crash when an INSERT command specifies the name of a file
549 that does not exist (bug #24569).
551 - Fix crash when CROSSTABS specifies a long-string variable (bugs
554 - Fix crash drawing pie charts with many segments.
556 - Fix crash when NUMERIC specifies an invalid format.
558 * PSPPIRE bug fixes and changes:
560 - On Windows, write the output file to the user's home directory
561 instead of the current directory, to better match user
564 - Some data editor fixes.
568 - Fix typo in BINOMIAL section of user manual (bug #25892).
570 Changes from 0.6.0 to 0.6.1:
572 * Statistical bug fixes:
574 - Report correct standardized regression coefficients in linear
575 regression output (bug #23567).
577 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
579 - Avoid crash with pie charts (bug #24014).
581 - Don't append % to count totals (bug #24003).
583 - Don't crash on bad input (bug #24031).
585 - Don't crash if "end data." is not left aligned (bug #24115).
587 - Change default workspace value to 64 MB, to avoid unnecessary
588 disk accesses on modern machines.
592 - Add ".sav" or ".por" suffix to filename when saving with Save_As
595 - Make it possible to reopen the output window on Windows (bug
598 - A POSIX regular expression library is now included and used
599 automatically if the host does not have one or has one that is
602 * Build fixes and changes:
604 - Work around bug in GSL that prevented build with recent GCC
605 versions without manually adding -fgnu89-inline to CFLAGS.
607 - Also warn about missing prerequisites as we encounter them (bug
610 - Distribute necessary files to allow users working from the
611 distributed tarball to configure with --enable-gui-tools.
613 - Append $(EXEEXT_FOR_BUILD) to output file name when building
614 q2c, fixing build problems on Windows.
616 - GSL 1.8 or later is now required.
618 - Build errors with --enable-relocatable were fixed.
620 * The German translations were removed, since native German speakers
621 found them too poor to be useful.
623 Changes from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0:
625 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
626 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
628 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE. This
629 interface allows you to enter data and variable definitions
630 interactively. Commands may be executed in syntax form, or by
631 using the interactive dialog boxes available from the dropdown
634 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
637 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
641 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
642 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
643 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
645 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
646 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
647 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
649 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
650 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
652 Statistical procedure changes:
654 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
655 via least-squares estimation.
657 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
658 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
660 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
663 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
664 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
666 User interface changes:
668 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
669 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
671 * PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
674 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
675 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
676 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
679 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
680 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
681 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
682 executed as if `+' had been specified.
684 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
685 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
686 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
688 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
689 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
690 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
691 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
696 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
697 manual for a full description of the available options.
699 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
700 "make install" will do this for you.
702 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
703 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
705 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
706 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
707 Previously, by default output was written only to file
708 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
709 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
714 - This driver now supports charts in output. Charts are written
715 as separate files that the main output file refers to. By
716 default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
717 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
719 - Configurations are provided that use VT100 (and xterm)
720 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
721 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
725 - The default paper size is now determined using the PAPERSIZE
726 environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale category on
727 systems that support it. If these are not set, the default is
728 now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the default,
729 set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
731 - Font metrics are now read from AFM files, instead of
732 Groff-format metrics files. PostScript fonts can now be
735 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
736 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install
737 AFM files for the standard PostScript fonts, including the
738 ones that the PostScript driver uses by default.
740 - Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
741 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
742 longer needed, or supported.
744 - The PostScript prologue is no longer obtained from the
745 "ps-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file is
746 no longer needed, or supported.
750 - The HTML prologue is no longer obtained from the
751 "html-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file
752 is no longer needed, or supported.
754 Command language changes:
756 * The following commands are new:
758 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files and
759 text data files. It will be extended later to read other
760 types of foreign data.
762 - CD, to change the current directory.
764 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
766 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
769 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
771 - CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
773 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
776 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
778 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
780 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
782 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
784 * PSPP now supports very long string variables (over 255 bytes
787 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
789 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
790 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
791 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
793 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
794 re-implemented in a later release:
796 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
802 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
803 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
804 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
806 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
807 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
809 "Scratch files", a new PSPP extension:
811 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
812 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
813 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
814 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
817 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
818 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
819 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
821 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
822 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
823 reassigned to new files.
825 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
826 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
827 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
828 documentation on those particular commands.
832 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
833 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
834 format of these files.
836 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
837 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
838 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
839 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
842 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
843 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
844 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
845 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
846 native floating point format.
848 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
849 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
850 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
852 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
853 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
855 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
856 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
857 subcommands has been added.
859 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
860 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
861 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
864 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
865 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
867 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
868 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
869 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
873 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
874 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
877 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
878 have been extensively revised and improved.
880 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
883 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
885 Changes in build dependencies:
887 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
890 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
891 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
892 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
894 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
896 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
898 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
900 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
908 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
909 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
912 * T-TEST (re-written).
914 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
915 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
918 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
919 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
920 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
921 third-party software.
923 * SET EPOCH implemented.
925 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
928 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
930 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
931 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
932 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
934 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
935 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
937 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
938 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
940 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
941 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
942 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
945 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
946 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
949 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
952 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
955 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
956 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
957 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
959 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
961 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
963 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
966 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
967 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
970 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
971 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
973 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
977 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
980 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
981 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
983 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
984 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
986 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
989 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
992 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
995 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
996 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
997 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
999 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
1001 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
1003 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
1007 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
1009 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
1013 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
1014 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
1016 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
1018 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
1020 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
1024 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
1026 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
1028 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
1029 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
1031 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
1032 didn't like being the last command in a file.
1034 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
1035 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
1036 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
1037 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1039 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
1040 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1041 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1043 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
1044 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
1045 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
1047 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
1048 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
1049 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1052 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
1053 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1056 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1057 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1059 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
1060 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1061 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1063 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
1064 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
1065 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
1067 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
1068 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
1069 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1072 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
1073 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1076 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1077 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1079 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
1082 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
1083 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1084 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1086 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
1087 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
1091 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
1092 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
1094 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
1095 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
1096 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
1098 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
1100 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
1104 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
1106 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
1108 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
1109 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
1111 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
1113 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
1114 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1116 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
1117 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
1119 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
1120 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
1123 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
1124 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
1129 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
1130 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
1131 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
1133 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
1137 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
1139 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
1140 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
1143 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
1144 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
1145 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
1147 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
1149 Procedures now implemented:
1150 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
1152 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
1155 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
1156 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
1167 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
1168 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
1171 New command-line features:
1172 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
1173 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
1174 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
1175 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
1176 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
1178 Operator LAG is now implemented.
1180 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
1182 Table output manager completely rewritten.
1184 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
1185 reinstall your `devices' file.
1187 New output driver for HTML.
1189 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
1191 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
1193 Added Texinfo documentation for:
1194 * PSPP system file format
1195 * PSPP portable file format
1196 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
1199 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
1200 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
1202 Changes for version 0.1.0:
1204 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
1205 versions, please see ONEWS.
1207 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1208 Copyright information:
1210 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
1211 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
1212 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
1213 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1215 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
1216 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
1217 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
1221 version-control: never