1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Time-stamp: <2005-07-18 11:08:18 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.
8 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
10 New build dependencies:
12 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later.
14 * The GNU multiprecision arithmetic library (libgmp).
16 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
17 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
18 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
20 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
22 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
24 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
32 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
33 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
36 * T-TEST (re-written).
38 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
39 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
42 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
43 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
44 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
47 * SET EPOCH implemented.
49 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
52 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
54 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
55 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
56 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
58 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
59 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
61 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
62 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
64 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
65 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
66 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
69 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
70 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
73 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
76 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
79 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
80 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
81 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
83 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
85 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
87 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
90 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
91 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
94 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
95 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
97 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
101 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
104 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
105 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
107 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
108 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
110 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
113 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
116 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
119 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
120 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
121 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
123 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
125 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
127 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
131 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
133 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
137 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
138 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
140 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
142 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
144 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
148 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
150 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
152 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
153 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
155 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
156 didn't like being the last command in a file.
158 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
159 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
160 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
161 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
163 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
164 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
165 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
167 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
168 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
169 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
171 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
172 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
173 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
176 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
177 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
180 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
181 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
183 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
184 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
185 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
187 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
188 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
189 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
191 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
192 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
193 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
196 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
197 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
200 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
201 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
203 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
206 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
207 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
208 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
210 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
211 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
215 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
216 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
218 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
219 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
220 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
222 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
224 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
228 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
230 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
232 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
233 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
235 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
237 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
238 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
240 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
241 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
243 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
244 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
247 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
248 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
253 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
254 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
255 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
257 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
261 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
263 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
264 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
267 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
268 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
269 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
271 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
273 Procedures now implemented:
274 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
276 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
279 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
280 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
291 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
292 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
295 New command-line features:
296 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
297 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
298 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
299 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
300 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
302 Operator LAG is now implemented.
304 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
306 Table output manager completely rewritten.
308 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
309 reinstall your `devices' file.
311 New output driver for HTML.
313 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
315 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
317 Added Texinfo documentation for:
318 * PSPP system file format
319 * PSPP portable file format
320 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
323 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
324 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
326 Changes for version 0.1.0:
328 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
329 versions, please see ONEWS.
331 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
332 Copyright information:
334 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
336 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
337 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
338 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
339 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
341 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
342 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
343 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
347 version-control: never