1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996-2000, 2008-2016, 2017, 2019 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 1.2.0 to 1.3.0:
9 * FREQUENCIES will emit a warning if one or more weight values are missing.
11 * Plain text output is no longer divided into pages, since it is now
12 rarely printed on paper.
14 * pspp-convert: New "-a", "-l", "--password-list" options to search
15 for an encrypted file's password.
17 * Improvements to SAVE DATA COLLECTION support for MDD files.
19 * Bug fix for CVE-2018-20230.
21 * The EXAMINE command will now perform the Shapiro-Wilk test when
22 one or more plots are requested.
24 * The REGRESSION command now supports the /STATISTICS=TOL option which
25 outputs tolerance and variance inflation factor metrics for the data.
27 * The QUICK CLUSTER command now supports the /SAVE option which can
28 be used to save the cases' cluster membership and/or their distance
29 from the cluster centre to the active file.
31 * The MEANS command has been re-implemented.
33 * A bug where the GUI would crash when T-TEST was executed whilst
34 a filter was set has been fixed.
36 * The GUI now has a sub-dialog for post-hoc tests of the oneway
39 * Gtk+3.22.0 or later must now be used when building.
41 * GRAPH: Categorical barcharts displaying percentages now show the
42 sub-category as a percentage of the primary category instead of the
45 Changes from 1.0.1 to 1.2.0:
47 * New experimental command SAVE DATA COLLECTION to save MDD files.
49 * MTIME and YMDHMS variable formats now supported.
53 - zlib is now a required dependency. (Previously it was optional.)
55 - Gtk+3.18.0 or later must now be used when building.
57 - The code implementing the sheet rendering has been removed. Instead we
58 use a third party library: spread-sheet-widget.
60 * The "NOMISSING" keyword when generating syntax for piecharts in the
61 frequencies command was omitted. This has been corrected.
63 Changes from 1.0.0 to 1.0.1:
65 * Bug fixes, including fixes for CVE-2017-12958, CVE-2017-12959,
66 CVE-2017-12960, and CVE-2017-12961.
68 Changes from 0.11.0 to 1.0.0:
70 * Translation updates.
72 Changes from 0.10.2 to 0.11.0:
74 * The REGRESSION command now has a /ORIGIN subcommand to perform
75 regression through the origin.
77 * The FACTOR command can now analyse matrix files prepared with MATRIX DATA.
79 * The FACTOR command can now print the anti-image matrices.
81 * The MATRIX DATA command has been added.
83 * Some inappropriate properties in selection dialogs have been corrected.
85 * A bug which could cause the HTML driver to go into a tight loop
88 * An error in the FREQUENCIES procedure, where the word "Mean" was
89 printed when "Variance" was appropriate has been fixed.
91 * The ncurses library is no longer required or used.
93 * A bug where the Mann-Whitney test would give misleading results
94 if run on multiple variables and MISSING=ANALAYSIS was specified
97 * Gtk+3.14.5 or later must now be used when building.
99 * Graphical user interface changes:
101 ** There is a new menu: Edit|Options
103 ** The Non Parametric Statistics Menu has a new item: "K Independent Samples".
105 ** Dialog boxes can now be canceled using the <Escape> key.
107 * The AUTORECODE command now accepts an optional / before INTO.
109 * The short form of the VECTOR command can now create string variables.
111 * Bug fixes, including fixes for CVE-2017-10791 and CVE-2017-10792.
113 Changes from 0.10.1 to 0.10.2:
115 * CROSSTABS implements a new COUNT subcommand to round case or cell
118 * Help will be opened as HTML in default browser if yelp
121 * When plotting scatterplots with only one dataset (the simple case)
122 the colour used for the dataset is now black. The previous default
123 from the Tango palette was too faint to see easily.
125 * The varible info dialog could previously only paste a single variable.
126 Now it can paste multiple variables.
128 * Bug fixes, including the following:
130 - T-test with independent samples GUI crashed with string
131 type variable as group variable.
133 - The variable info dialog showed the previous selected variable
134 superimposed with the currently selected one.
136 - The GLM command did not properly deal with missing values. This
139 Changes from 0.10.0 to 0.10.1:
141 * Bug fixes, including the following:
143 - A bug where certain dialog boxes could not be properly populated
146 - Various commands have been hardened against errors when called
149 * Translation updates. Thanks to our translators!
151 Changes from 0.8.5 to 0.10.0:
153 * The QUICK CLUSTER command has a /PRINT subcommand which shows
154 the initial cluster centres and the final cluster membership of
155 each case. The clustering algorithm has also been updated, so
156 as to produce better separated clusters.
158 * A Russian localisation has been contributed.
160 * The GRAPH command now has a /BAR subcommand to draw barcharts.
162 * If the DECIMAL character is set to COMMA then the ',' character
163 will not be treated as a separator by DATA LIST.
165 * The graphical user interface (psppire) has been changed as follows:
167 - It now uses Gtk+ version 3 instead of version 2. Accordingly, it has a
168 somewhat different look and feel.
170 - There is now a Graphs menu to access the GRAPH command.
172 - The status of dialog box widgets are now preserved between calls
173 to the same dialog box for the same dataset.
175 - The dialog box for the Logistic Regression command will now
176 infer that string variables or any varible with a "measure"
177 of Nominal or Ordinal are to be treated as categorical variables
178 and will generate syntax accordingly.
180 * The pspp-convert utility can now decrypt encrypted syntax files.
181 The encrypted syntax file format is unacceptably insecure, so to
182 discourage its use PSPP and PSPPIRE do not directly read or write
189 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
191 - REPLACE, for search-and-replace of one string with another.
193 - STRUNC, to truncate a string and trim trailing spaces.
195 - MEDIAN, to compute the median of its arguments.
197 - The TRUNC function in expressions now supports additional arguments
198 for truncating to values other than integers and to indicate a level
199 of rounding fuzz. The default rounding fuzz may now be controlled
200 and displayed with SET FUZZBITS and SHOW FUZZBITS, respectively.
202 * Bug fixes, including the following notable ones:
204 - The correlation coefficient in the paired samples t-test
205 procedure is now correctly calculated when presented with
208 - The ESCAPE subcommand has been removed from GET DATA /TYPE=TXT.
209 For compatibility, the behavior that ESCAPE enabled is now the
210 default and only supported behavior.
212 - Rendering of the variable and data sheets in right-to-left locales
215 - The Mann-Whitney test, when run on a dataset containing values
216 of the group variable, other than those defining the test groups,
217 would incorrectly calculate the ranks. This has been corrected.
219 * The IMPORTCASES subcommand on GET DATA is now ignored, for
222 Changes from 0.8.4 to 0.8.5:
224 * The FREQUENCIES and CROSSTABS commands can now generate barcharts.
226 * The FACTOR command can now perform PROMAX rotations.
228 * SPSS/PC+ system files are now supported on GET and other commands
229 that read SPSS system files. The pspp-convert program can now read
230 SPSS/PC+ system files. Writing the obsolete SPSS/PC+ system file
231 format is not supported.
233 * SYSFILE INFO can now read SPSS/PC+ system files and SPSS portable
236 * FREQUENCIES: A bug was fixed where an assertion failure occurred
237 when an empty dataset was presented.
239 * The GRAPH command is now available. Initially it supports
240 scatterplots and histograms.
242 * The RND operator in expressions now supports additional operands
243 for rounding to values other than integers and to indicate a level
244 of rounding fuzz. The default rounding fuzz may now be controlled
245 and displayed with SET FUZZBITS and SHOW FUZZBITS, respectively.
247 Changes from 0.8.3 to 0.8.4:
249 * Formatting of SYSFILE INFO output was made easier to read.
251 * Bug fixes, including the following notable ones:
253 - FREQUENCIES works properly for string variables. (This bug was
254 introduced in 0.8.2.)
256 - CROSSTABS now correctly computes all of the measures that it
257 offers. Some measures have been removed because they were not
260 - The NPAR TESTS calculation of significance for the RUNS
261 subcommand has been corrected.
263 - Planned comparisons in ONEWAY ANOVA now correctly handle negative
266 - The COUNT command now correctly treats missing values as
269 - Conformance fixes to Open Document output format.
271 Changes from 0.8.2 to 0.8.3:
273 * Independent T-Tests displayed the standard error of the difference
274 and the confidence interval for the unequal variances case, where
275 the equal variances case should have been. This has been fixed.
277 * REGRESSION now recognises /STATISTICS=CI(x) which causes confidence
278 intervals for the coefficients to be printed.
280 * When DESCRIPTIVES calculates Z scores, it now omits cases filtered
281 by the current FILTER settings.
283 * PSPPIRE graphical user interface improvements:
285 - Dialog boxes with source variable lists can now choose the sort
286 order; right click and select from the popup menu.
288 - File|Open now allows an encoding to be selected for opening
291 - File|Display Data File Information|External File... now allows an
292 encoding to be selected.
294 - A problem with the Means dialog has been resolved (bug #41433).
296 - Several problems related to the input of spreadsheets have been
297 fixed (bug #41657, #41620
299 * System file related improvements:
301 - With ENCODING="DETECT", SYSFILE INFO can now help the user to
302 pick an encoding for reading a system file that does not identify
305 - SYSFILE INFO now accepts an ENCODING subcommand to specify the
306 character encoding of string data in the system file.
308 - Variable labels over 255 bytes long are now accepted without
309 truncation (bug #41863).
311 - System files that contain duplicate variable names may now be
312 read successfully (bug #41475).
314 Changes from 0.8.1 to 0.8.2:
316 * Charts are now rendered with colours from the Tango palette instead
317 of fully saturated primaries.
319 * Support for new system file variants:
321 - PSPP can now read and write ZCOMPRESSED system files, which
322 compress data much more effectively than older "compressed"
323 files. (The older format is still supported.)
325 - PSPP can now decrypt encrypted system files, using the new
326 pspp-convert utility. The encrypted system file format is
327 unacceptably insecure, so to discourage its use PSPP and PSPPIRE
328 do not directly read or write this format.
330 * Missing values for long string variables are now read from and
331 written to system files in an SPSS-compatible fashion.
333 (Earlier versions of PSPP that supported missing values for long
334 string variables wrote them to system files in an SPSS-incompatible
335 way. To fix the problem, read the system file with this version of
336 PSPP and then save a new copy of it.)
338 * pspp-convert, a new standalone utility for converting SPSS system
339 and portable files to other formats, is now included. The initial
340 version supports comma-separated value files as output format.
341 pspp-convert can also decrypt encrypted system files.
345 - zlib is now a required dependency. (Previously it was optional.)
347 Changes from 0.8.0 to 0.8.1:
353 * Changes to existing commands:
355 - CROSSTABS: The requirement that one expected count must be less than five
356 before Fishers Exact Test will be reported has been removed.
358 * PSPPIRE graphical user interface improvements:
360 - A new set of icons has been contributed.
362 - Syntax windows now parse syntax in "auto" mode, which in practice
363 should mean that both "batch" and "interactive" syntax now works,
364 instead of just "interactive" syntax.
366 - The variable pane of data windows now include a Role column.
370 - System files written by IBM SPSS 21 are now read without warnings.
372 - System files written by "VOXCO INTERVIEWER 4.3" are now read
375 - PSPPIRE should now more gracefully handle syntax files that contain
378 Changes from 0.6.2 to 0.8.0:
384 - DATAFILE ATTRIBUTES
391 - LOGISTIC REGRESSION
395 - PRESERVE and RESTORE
399 - SAVE TRANSLATE to CSV and tab-delimited files
401 - VARIABLE ATTRIBUTES
403 * Changes to existing commands:
405 - AUTORECODE has a new GROUP subcommand.
407 - CROSSTABS has been re-implemented to fix numerous bugs.
409 - EXAMINE: /MISSING=LISTWISE is now the default.
411 - DO REPEAT command has been reimplemented. Now, when DO REPEAT
412 contains an INCLUDE or INSERT command, substitutions are not
413 applied to the included file.
415 - FILE HANDLE has a new ENDS subcommand to select CR or CRLF new-lines.
417 - HOST has been updated to use more modern syntax.
419 - Most commands that work with data files now support a new
422 - MISSING VALUES can now assign missing values to long string
425 - ONEWAY: the POSTHOC subcommand is now implemented.
427 - The following new subcommands to NPAR TESTS have been implemented:
428 COCHRAN, FRIEDMAN, JONCKHEERE-TERPSTRA, KENDALL, KRUSKAL-WALLIS, MANN-WHITNEY,
429 MCNEMAR, SIGN, WILCOXON, and RUNS
431 - SET and SHOW no longer have ENDCMD, NULLINE, PROMPT, CPROMPT, and
432 DPROMPT subcommands. The defaults are now fixed values.
434 - SHOW now has a JOURNAL subcommand, to show the location of the
437 - VALUE LABELS can now assign value labels to long string
440 * Other language changes:
442 - The new DATASET commands replace the "scratch file" PSPP
443 extension, which is no longer supported.
445 - Strings may now include arbitrary Unicode code points specified
446 in hexadecimal, using the syntax U'hhhh'. For example, Unicode
447 code point U+1D11E, the musical G clef character, may be
448 expressed as U'1D11E'.
450 See the "Tokens" section in the PSPP manual for more information.
452 - In previous versions of PSPP, in a string expressed in
453 hexadecimal with X'hh' syntax, the hexadecimal digits expressed
454 bytes in the locale encoding. In this version of PSPP, X'hh'
455 syntax always expresses bytes in UTF-8 encoding.
457 See the "Tokens" section in the PSPP manual for more information.
459 * PSPPIRE graphical user interface improvements:
461 - Added support for non-ASCII characters in strings, labels and
464 - A "Split Window" function is available, which makes it easier to
465 see different parts of a large data file.
467 - Data files can now be opened by specifing their name as the first
468 argument. This means that on a properly configured desktop, double
469 clicking on an icon will open the file.
471 - Foreign formats, such as Gnumeric, OpenDocument and CSV can be imported
472 via using an "intelligent" application assistant dialog.
476 - The new "cairo" output driver supports output in PostScript, PDF,
477 and SVG formats. Its functionality is a superset of that of the
478 "postscript" driver, which has been removed. You must have Cairo
479 and Pango installed to build the "cairo" driver.
481 - Charts are now produced with Cairo and Pango, instead of libplot.
482 Without them, the new graphing features will not work. If you do
483 not have Cairo and Pango installed, you must run `configure' with
486 - The plain text output driver now properly supports multibyte UTF-8
487 characters, including double-width characters and combining
490 - Output to OpenDocument format is now supported.
492 - The HTML output is much improved.
494 * The "pspp" program has a new option --batch (or -b) that selects
495 "batch" syntax mode. In previous versions of PSPP this syntax mode
496 was the default. Now a new "auto" syntax mode is the default. In
497 "auto" mode, PSPP interprets most syntax files correctly regardless
498 of their intended syntax mode.
500 See the "Syntax Variants" section in the PSPP manual for more
503 * The "pspp" program has a new option --syntax-encoding that
504 specifies the encoding for syntax files listed on the command line,
505 as well as the default encoding for syntax files included with
506 INCLUDE or INSERT. The default is to accept the system locale
507 encoding, UTF-8, UTF-16, or UTF-32, automatically detecting which
508 one the system file uses.
510 See the documentation for the INSERT command in the PSPP manual for
513 * Text data files that PRINT and WRITE creates now use the system
514 native line ends by default (CRLF on Windows, LF only elsewhere).
515 Use the new ENDS subcommand on FILE HANDLE to override the default.
517 * A new Perl module allows Perl programs to read and write PSPP
520 * A tutorial chapter has been added to the user manual.
522 Changes from 0.6.1 to 0.6.2:
526 - Dutch, thanks to Harry Thijssen.
528 - Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Michel Boaventura.
530 Thanks for translations are also due to the coordinators at
531 translationproject.org.
533 * Statistical bug fixes:
535 - REGRESSION: Report correct standard error of the estimate (bug
538 - T-TEST: Report correct significance of paired sample T-test in
539 the common case (bug #26936) and corner cases. Thanks to Mike
540 Griffiths and Matej Cepl for reporting these bugs.
542 * Build fixes and changes:
544 - Fix build with GTK+ 2.17.4 and later.
546 - Make running "make" after running "configure" with different
547 settings reliably rebuild version.c.
549 - Cygwin and MinGW build fixes.
551 - Fixes for building with recent gnulib.
553 - The Makefile now honors two new variables, PSPP_LDFLAGS and
554 PSPPIRE_LDFLAGS, that affect linking of the PSPP and PSPPIRE
555 binaries, respectively. This makes building easier for some
558 - Fixes for "configure --enable-relocatable" (bug #25508).
560 * Data file bug fixes and changes:
562 - Fix reading text data files that contain a mix of white space
563 and commas. Now "a ,b" is treated as two fields containing "a"
564 and "b"; previously it was treated as three, with an empty field
567 - Fix writing corrupted .sav files on Windows.
569 - Fix writing variable labels longer than 252 bytes to save files.
570 Thanks to Robert Westlund for reporting this bug.
572 - Fix writing corrupted .por files (bug #26034).
574 - Fix reading .por files whose initial lines are not padded out
575 with spaces as expected.
577 - PSPP will no longer issue warnings about some .sav file records
578 or values that it does not understand. These warnings were
579 harmless, but needlessly alarmed some users.
581 - Fix crash reading empty string fields from PostgreSQL databases.
583 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
585 - Users may now control precision of output statistics. Instead
586 of hard coding the width and decimals of output numbers, respect
587 the default format in most instances. Counts are now normally
588 displayed with the format of the weight variable, if any.
590 - Fix crash when an INSERT command specifies the name of a file
591 that does not exist (bug #24569).
593 - Fix crash when CROSSTABS specifies a long-string variable (bugs
596 - Fix crash drawing pie charts with many segments.
598 - Fix crash when NUMERIC specifies an invalid format.
600 * PSPPIRE bug fixes and changes:
602 - On Windows, write the output file to the user's home directory
603 instead of the current directory, to better match user
606 - Some data editor fixes.
610 - Fix typo in BINOMIAL section of user manual (bug #25892).
612 Changes from 0.6.0 to 0.6.1:
614 * Statistical bug fixes:
616 - Report correct standardized regression coefficients in linear
617 regression output (bug #23567).
619 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
621 - Avoid crash with pie charts (bug #24014).
623 - Don't append % to count totals (bug #24003).
625 - Don't crash on bad input (bug #24031).
627 - Don't crash if "end data." is not left aligned (bug #24115).
629 - Change default workspace value to 64 MB, to avoid unnecessary
630 disk accesses on modern machines.
634 - Add ".sav" or ".por" suffix to filename when saving with Save_As
637 - Make it possible to reopen the output window on Windows (bug
640 - A POSIX regular expression library is now included and used
641 automatically if the host does not have one or has one that is
644 * Build fixes and changes:
646 - Work around bug in GSL that prevented build with recent GCC
647 versions without manually adding -fgnu89-inline to CFLAGS.
649 - Also warn about missing prerequisites as we encounter them (bug
652 - Distribute necessary files to allow users working from the
653 distributed tarball to configure with --enable-gui-tools.
655 - Append $(EXEEXT_FOR_BUILD) to output file name when building
656 q2c, fixing build problems on Windows.
658 - GSL 1.8 or later is now required.
660 - Build errors with --enable-relocatable were fixed.
662 * The German translations were removed, since native German speakers
663 found them too poor to be useful.
665 Changes from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0:
667 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
668 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
670 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE. This
671 interface allows you to enter data and variable definitions
672 interactively. Commands may be executed in syntax form, or by
673 using the interactive dialog boxes available from the dropdown
676 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
679 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
683 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
684 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
685 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
687 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
688 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
689 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
691 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
692 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
694 Statistical procedure changes:
696 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
697 via least-squares estimation.
699 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
700 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
702 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
705 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
706 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
708 User interface changes:
710 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
711 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
713 * PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
716 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
717 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
718 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
721 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
722 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
723 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
724 executed as if `+' had been specified.
726 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
727 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
728 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
730 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
731 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
732 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
733 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
738 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
739 manual for a full description of the available options.
741 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
742 "make install" will do this for you.
744 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
745 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
747 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
748 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
749 Previously, by default output was written only to file
750 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
751 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
756 - This driver now supports charts in output. Charts are written
757 as separate files that the main output file refers to. By
758 default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
759 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
761 - Configurations are provided that use VT100 (and xterm)
762 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
763 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
767 - The default paper size is now determined using the PAPERSIZE
768 environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale category on
769 systems that support it. If these are not set, the default is
770 now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the default,
771 set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
773 - Font metrics are now read from AFM files, instead of
774 Groff-format metrics files. PostScript fonts can now be
777 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
778 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install
779 AFM files for the standard PostScript fonts, including the
780 ones that the PostScript driver uses by default.
782 - Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
783 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
784 longer needed, or supported.
786 - The PostScript prologue is no longer obtained from the
787 "ps-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file is
788 no longer needed, or supported.
792 - The HTML prologue is no longer obtained from the
793 "html-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file
794 is no longer needed, or supported.
796 Command language changes:
798 * The following commands are new:
800 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files and
801 text data files. It will be extended later to read other
802 types of foreign data.
804 - CD, to change the current directory.
806 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
808 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
811 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
813 - CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
815 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
818 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
820 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
822 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
824 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
826 * PSPP now supports very long string variables (over 255 bytes
829 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
831 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
832 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
833 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
835 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
836 re-implemented in a later release:
838 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
844 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
845 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
846 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
848 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
849 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
851 "Scratch files", a new PSPP extension:
853 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
854 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
855 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
856 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
859 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
860 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
861 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
863 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
864 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
865 reassigned to new files.
867 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
868 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
869 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
870 documentation on those particular commands.
874 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
875 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
876 format of these files.
878 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
879 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
880 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
881 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
884 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
885 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
886 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
887 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
888 native floating point format.
890 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
891 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
892 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
894 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
895 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
897 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
898 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
899 subcommands has been added.
901 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
902 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
903 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
906 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
907 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
909 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
910 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
911 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
915 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
916 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
919 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
920 have been extensively revised and improved.
922 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
925 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
927 Changes in build dependencies:
929 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
932 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
933 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
934 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
936 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
938 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
940 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
942 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
950 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
951 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
954 * T-TEST (re-written).
956 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
957 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
960 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
961 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
962 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
963 third-party software.
965 * SET EPOCH implemented.
967 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
970 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
972 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
973 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
974 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
976 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
977 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
979 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
980 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
982 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
983 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
984 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
987 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
988 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
991 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
994 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
997 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
998 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
999 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
1001 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
1003 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
1005 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
1008 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
1009 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
1012 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
1013 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
1015 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
1019 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
1022 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
1023 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
1025 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
1026 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
1028 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
1031 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
1034 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
1037 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
1038 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
1039 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
1041 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
1043 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
1045 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
1049 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
1051 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
1055 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
1056 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
1058 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
1060 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
1062 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
1066 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
1068 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
1070 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
1071 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
1073 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
1074 didn't like being the last command in a file.
1076 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
1077 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
1078 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
1079 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1081 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
1082 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1083 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1085 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
1086 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
1087 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
1089 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
1090 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
1091 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1094 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
1095 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1098 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1099 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1101 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
1102 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1103 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1105 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
1106 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
1107 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
1109 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
1110 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
1111 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1114 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
1115 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1118 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1119 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1121 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
1124 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
1125 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1126 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1128 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
1129 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
1133 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
1134 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
1136 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
1137 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
1138 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
1140 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
1142 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
1146 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
1148 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
1150 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
1151 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
1153 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
1155 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
1156 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1158 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
1159 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
1161 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
1162 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
1165 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
1166 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
1171 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
1172 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
1173 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
1175 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
1179 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
1181 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
1182 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
1185 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
1186 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
1187 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
1189 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
1191 Procedures now implemented:
1192 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
1194 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
1197 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
1198 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
1209 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
1210 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
1213 New command-line features:
1214 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
1215 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
1216 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
1217 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
1218 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
1220 Operator LAG is now implemented.
1222 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
1224 Table output manager completely rewritten.
1226 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
1227 reinstall your `devices' file.
1229 New output driver for HTML.
1231 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
1233 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
1235 Added Texinfo documentation for:
1236 * PSPP system file format
1237 * PSPP portable file format
1238 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
1241 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
1242 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
1244 Changes for version 0.1.0:
1246 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
1247 versions, please see ONEWS.
1249 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1250 Copyright information:
1252 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
1253 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
1254 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
1255 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1257 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
1258 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
1259 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
1263 version-control: never