1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Time-stamp: <2007-07-06 23:12:24 blp>
3 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end for copying conditions.
6 Please send PSPP bug reports to bug-gnu-pspp@gnu.org.
10 The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General Public
11 License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
13 Changes in build dependencies:
15 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
16 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
17 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
19 The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed. You
20 may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following TEMPORARY, which
23 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
26 Changes since 0.4.0 to 0.4.1:
28 Added support for very long string variables (over 255 bytes long).
32 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
33 manual for a full description of the available options.
35 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
36 "make install" will do this for you.
38 * The PostScript driver now obtains font metrics from AFM files,
39 instead of Groff-format metrics files. It can now embed
40 PostScript fonts in its output.
42 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
43 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install AFM
44 files for the standard PostScript files, including the ones that
45 the PostScript driver uses by default.
47 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
49 * CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
53 * XEXPORT (a PSPP extension).
57 A new PSPP extension called "scratch files" has been implemented.
58 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
59 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
60 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
61 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
64 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
65 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
66 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
68 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
69 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
70 reassigned to new files.
72 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
73 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
74 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
75 documentation on those particular commands.
77 PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
80 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
82 Changes in build dependencies:
84 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
87 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
88 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
89 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
91 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
93 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
95 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
97 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
105 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
106 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
109 * T-TEST (re-written).
111 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
112 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
115 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
116 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
117 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
118 third-party software.
120 * SET EPOCH implemented.
122 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
125 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
127 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
128 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
129 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
131 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
132 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
134 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
135 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
137 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
138 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
139 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
142 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
143 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
146 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
149 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
152 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
153 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
154 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
156 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
158 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
160 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
163 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
164 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
167 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
168 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
170 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
174 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
177 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
178 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
180 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
181 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
183 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
186 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
189 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
192 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
193 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
194 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
196 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
198 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
200 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
204 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
206 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
210 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
211 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
213 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
215 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
217 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
221 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
223 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
225 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
226 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
228 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
229 didn't like being the last command in a file.
231 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
232 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
233 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
234 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
236 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
237 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
238 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
240 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
241 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
242 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
244 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
245 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
246 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
249 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
250 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
253 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
254 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
256 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
257 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
258 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
260 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
261 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
262 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
264 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
265 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
266 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
269 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
270 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
273 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
274 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
276 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
279 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
280 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
281 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
283 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
284 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
288 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
289 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
291 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
292 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
293 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
295 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
297 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
301 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
303 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
305 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
306 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
308 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
310 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
311 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
313 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
314 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
316 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
317 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
320 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
321 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
326 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
327 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
328 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
330 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
334 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
336 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
337 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
340 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
341 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
342 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
344 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
346 Procedures now implemented:
347 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
349 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
352 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
353 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
364 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
365 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
368 New command-line features:
369 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
370 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
371 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
372 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
373 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
375 Operator LAG is now implemented.
377 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
379 Table output manager completely rewritten.
381 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
382 reinstall your `devices' file.
384 New output driver for HTML.
386 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
388 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
390 Added Texinfo documentation for:
391 * PSPP system file format
392 * PSPP portable file format
393 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
396 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
397 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
399 Changes for version 0.1.0:
401 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
402 versions, please see ONEWS.
404 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
405 Copyright information:
407 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
409 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
410 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
411 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
412 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
414 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
415 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
416 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
420 version-control: never