1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Time-stamp: <2010-08-04 22:26:05 blp>
3 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000, 2008, 2009, 2010 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 0.7.3 to 0.7.5:
10 * The MRSETS command is now implemented.
12 * SAVE TRANSLATE is now implemented, with initial support for saving
13 data in comma-separated value and tab-delimited formats.
15 Changes from 0.7.2 to 0.7.3:
17 * Charts are now produced with Cairo and Pango, instead of libplot.
18 Without them, the new graphing features will not work. If you do
19 not have Cairo and Pango installed, you must run `configure' with
22 * The new "cairo" output driver supports output in PostScript, PDF,
23 and SVG formats. Its functionality is a superset of that of the
24 "postscript" driver, which has been removed. You must have Cairo
25 and Pango installed to build the "cairo" driver.
27 Changes from 0.7.1 to 0.7.2:
29 * Updated Perl module interface.
31 * Value labels for long string variables are now supported.
33 * Missing values for long string variables are now supported.
35 Changes from 0.7.0 to 0.7.1:
37 * Added a perl module to facilitate reading and writing of pspp system
38 files from perl programs.
40 Changes from 0.6.2-pre6 to 0.7.0:
42 * Custom variable and data file attributes are now supported.
43 Commands VARIABLE ATTRIBUTE and DATAFILE ATTRIBUTE have been added
44 for setting and clear attributes. Support for attributes has also
45 been added to commands that read and write system files, such as
46 SAVE and GET, as well as to the DISPLAY command.
48 * Numererous improvements to the Graphical User Interface have
49 made. Notable improvements include:
51 - Non-Ascii characters in strings, labels and variable names are
54 - A "Split Window" function is available, which makes it easier to
55 see different parts of a large data file.
57 - Data files can now be opened by specifing their name as the first
58 argument. This means that on a properly configured desktop, double
59 clicking on an icon will open the file.
62 * New statistical procedures:
67 NPAR TESTS now supports the WILCOXON and SIGN subcommands.
69 The CROSSTABS command has been completely re-implemented to fix numerous bugs.
71 * Three new commands to combine data files have been added: MATCH FILES,
74 * A tutorial chapter has been added to the user manual.
76 Changes from 0.6.1 to 0.6.2
80 - Dutch, thanks to Harry Thijssen.
82 - Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Michel Boaventura.
84 Thanks for translations are also due to the coordinators at
85 translationproject.org.
87 * Statistical bug fixes:
89 - REGRESSION: Report correct standard error of the estimate (bug
92 - T-TEST: Report correct significance of paired sample T-test in
93 the common case (bug #26936) and corner cases. Thanks to Mike
94 Griffiths and Matej Cepl for reporting these bugs.
96 * Build fixes and changes:
98 - Fix build with GTK+ 2.17.4 and later.
100 - Make running "make" after running "configure" with different
101 settings reliably rebuild version.c.
103 - Cygwin and MinGW build fixes.
105 - Fixes for building with recent gnulib.
107 - The Makefile now honors two new variables, PSPP_LDFLAGS and
108 PSPPIRE_LDFLAGS, that affect linking of the PSPP and PSPPIRE
109 binaries, respectively. This makes building easier for some
112 - Fixes for "configure --enable-relocatable" (bug #25508).
114 * Data file bug fixes and changes:
116 - Fix reading text data files that contain a mix of white space
117 and commas. Now "a ,b" is treated as two fields containing "a"
118 and "b"; previously it was treated as three, with an empty field
121 - Fix writing corrupted .sav files on Windows.
123 - Fix writing variable labels longer than 252 bytes to save files.
124 Thanks to Robert Westlund for reporting this bug.
126 - Fix writing corrupted .por files (bug #26034).
128 - Fix reading .por files whose initial lines are not padded out
129 with spaces as expected.
131 - PSPP will no longer issue warnings about some .sav file records
132 or values that it does not understand. These warnings were
133 harmless, but needlessly alarmed some users.
135 - Fix crash reading empty string fields from PostgreSQL databases.
137 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
139 - Users may now control precision of output statistics. Instead
140 of hard coding the width and decimals of output numbers, respect
141 the default format in most instances. Counts are now normally
142 displayed with the format of the weight variable, if any.
144 - Fix crash when an INSERT command specifies the name of a file
145 that does not exist (bug #24569).
147 - Fix crash when CROSSTABS specifies a long-string variable (bugs
150 - Fix crash drawing pie charts with many segments.
152 - Fix crash when NUMERIC specifies an invalid format.
154 * PSPPIRE bug fixes and changes:
156 - On Windows, write the output file to the user's home directory
157 instead of the current directory, to better match user
160 - Some data editor fixes.
164 - Fix typo in BINOMIAL section of user manual (bug #25892).
166 Changes from 0.6.0 to 0.6.1:
168 * Statistical bug fixes:
170 - Report correct standardized regression coefficients in linear
171 regression output (bug #23567).
173 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
175 - Avoid crash with pie charts (bug #24014).
177 - Don't append % to count totals (bug #24003).
179 - Don't crash on bad input (bug #24031).
181 - Don't crash if "end data." is not left aligned (bug #24115).
183 - Change default workspace value to 64 MB, to avoid unnecessary
184 disk accesses on modern machines.
188 - Add ".sav" or ".por" suffix to filename when saving with Save_As
191 - Make it possible to reopen the output window on Windows (bug
194 - A POSIX regular expression library is now included and used
195 automatically if the host does not have one or has one that is
198 * Build fixes and changes:
200 - Work around bug in GSL that prevented build with recent GCC
201 versions without manually adding -fgnu89-inline to CFLAGS.
203 - Also warn about missing prerequisites as we encounter them (bug
206 - Distribute necessary files to allow users working from the
207 distributed tarball to configure with --enable-gui-tools.
209 - Append $(EXEEXT_FOR_BUILD) to output file name when building
210 q2c, fixing build problems on Windows.
212 - GSL 1.8 or later is now required.
214 - Build errors with --enable-relocatable were fixed.
216 * The German translations were removed, since native German speakers
217 found them too poor to be useful.
219 Changes from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0:
221 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
222 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
224 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE. This
225 interface allows you to enter data and variable definitions
226 interactively. Commands may be executed in syntax form, or by
227 using the interactive dialog boxes available from the dropdown
230 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
233 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
237 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
238 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
239 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
241 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
242 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
243 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
245 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
246 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
248 Statistical procedure changes:
250 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
251 via least-squares estimation.
253 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
254 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
256 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
259 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
260 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
262 User interface changes:
264 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
265 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
267 * PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
270 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
271 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
272 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
275 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
276 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
277 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
278 executed as if `+' had been specified.
280 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
281 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
282 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
284 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
285 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
286 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
287 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
292 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
293 manual for a full description of the available options.
295 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
296 "make install" will do this for you.
298 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
299 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
301 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
302 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
303 Previously, by default output was written only to file
304 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
305 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
310 - This driver now supports charts in output. Charts are written
311 as separate files that the main output file refers to. By
312 default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
313 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
315 - Configurations are provided that use VT100 (and xterm)
316 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
317 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
321 - The default paper size is now determined using the PAPERSIZE
322 environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale category on
323 systems that support it. If these are not set, the default is
324 now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the default,
325 set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
327 - Font metrics are now read from AFM files, instead of
328 Groff-format metrics files. PostScript fonts can now be
331 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
332 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install
333 AFM files for the standard PostScript fonts, including the
334 ones that the PostScript driver uses by default.
336 - Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
337 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
338 longer needed, or supported.
340 - The PostScript prologue is no longer obtained from the
341 "ps-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file is
342 no longer needed, or supported.
346 - The HTML prologue is no longer obtained from the
347 "html-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file
348 is no longer needed, or supported.
350 Command language changes:
352 * The following commands are new:
354 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files and
355 text data files. It will be extended later to read other
356 types of foreign data.
358 - CD, to change the current directory.
360 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
362 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
365 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
367 - CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
369 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
372 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
374 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
376 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
378 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
380 * PSPP now supports very long string variables (over 255 bytes
383 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
385 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
386 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
387 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
389 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
390 re-implemented in a later release:
392 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
398 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
399 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
400 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
402 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
403 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
405 "Scratch files", a new PSPP extension:
407 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
408 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
409 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
410 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
413 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
414 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
415 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
417 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
418 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
419 reassigned to new files.
421 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
422 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
423 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
424 documentation on those particular commands.
428 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
429 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
430 format of these files.
432 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
433 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
434 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
435 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
438 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
439 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
440 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
441 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
442 native floating point format.
444 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
445 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
446 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
448 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
449 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
451 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
452 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
453 subcommands has been added.
455 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
456 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
457 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
460 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
461 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
463 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
464 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
465 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
469 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
470 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
473 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
474 have been extensively revised and improved.
476 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
479 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
481 Changes in build dependencies:
483 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
486 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
487 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
488 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
490 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
492 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
494 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
496 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
504 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
505 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
508 * T-TEST (re-written).
510 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
511 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
514 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
515 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
516 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
517 third-party software.
519 * SET EPOCH implemented.
521 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
524 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
526 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
527 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
528 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
530 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
531 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
533 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
534 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
536 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
537 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
538 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
541 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
542 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
545 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
548 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
551 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
552 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
553 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
555 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
557 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
559 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
562 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
563 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
566 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
567 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
569 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
573 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
576 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
577 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
579 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
580 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
582 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
585 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
588 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
591 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
592 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
593 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
595 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
597 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
599 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
603 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
605 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
609 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
610 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
612 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
614 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
616 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
620 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
622 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
624 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
625 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
627 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
628 didn't like being the last command in a file.
630 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
631 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
632 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
633 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
635 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
636 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
637 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
639 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
640 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
641 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
643 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
644 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
645 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
648 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
649 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
652 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
653 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
655 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
656 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
657 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
659 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
660 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
661 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
663 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
664 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
665 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
668 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
669 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
672 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
673 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
675 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
678 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
679 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
680 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
682 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
683 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
687 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
688 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
690 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
691 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
692 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
694 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
696 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
700 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
702 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
704 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
705 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
707 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
709 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
710 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
712 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
713 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
715 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
716 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
719 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
720 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
725 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
726 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
727 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
729 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
733 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
735 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
736 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
739 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
740 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
741 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
743 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
745 Procedures now implemented:
746 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
748 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
751 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
752 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
763 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
764 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
767 New command-line features:
768 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
769 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
770 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
771 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
772 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
774 Operator LAG is now implemented.
776 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
778 Table output manager completely rewritten.
780 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
781 reinstall your `devices' file.
783 New output driver for HTML.
785 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
787 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
789 Added Texinfo documentation for:
790 * PSPP system file format
791 * PSPP portable file format
792 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
795 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
796 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
798 Changes for version 0.1.0:
800 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
801 versions, please see ONEWS.
803 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
804 Copyright information:
806 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
807 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
808 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
809 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
811 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
812 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
813 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
817 version-control: never