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 0.10.2 to 0.10.5-pre3:
9 * The REGRESSION command now has a /ORIGIN subcommand to perform
10 regression through the origin.
12 * The FACTOR command can now analyse matrix files prepared with MATRIX DATA.
14 * The FACTOR command can now print the anti-image matrices.
16 * The MATRIX DATA command has been added.
18 * Some inappropriate properties in selection dialogs have been corrected.
20 * A bug which could cause the HTML driver to go into a tight loop
23 * An error in the FREQUENCIES procedure, where the word "Mean" was
24 printed when "Variance" was appropriate has been fixed.
26 * The ncurses library is no longer required or used.
28 * A bug where the Mann-Whitney test would give misleading results
29 if run on multiple variables and MISSING=ANALAYSIS was specified
32 * Gtk+3.14.5 or later must now be used when building.
34 * Graphical user interface changes:
36 ** There is a new menu: Edit|Options
38 ** The Non Parametric Statistics Menu has a new item: "K Independent Samples".
40 ** Dialog boxes can now be canceled using the <Escape> key.
42 * The AUTORECODE command now accepts an optional / before INTO.
44 * The short form of the VECTOR command can now create string variables.
46 * Bug fixes, including fixes for CVE-2017-10791 and CVE-2017-10792.
48 Changes from 0.10.1 to 0.10.2:
50 * CROSSTABS implements a new COUNT subcommand to round case or cell
53 * Help will be opened as HTML in default browser if yelp
56 * When plotting scatterplots with only one dataset (the simple case)
57 the colour used for the dataset is now black. The previous default
58 from the Tango palette was too faint to see easily.
60 * The varible info dialog could previously only paste a single variable.
61 Now it can paste multiple variables.
63 * Bug fixes, including the following:
65 - T-test with independent samples GUI crashed with string
66 type variable as group variable.
68 - The variable info dialog showed the previous selected variable
69 superimposed with the currently selected one.
71 - The GLM command did not properly deal with missing values. This
74 Changes from 0.10.0 to 0.10.1:
76 * Bug fixes, including the following:
78 - A bug where certain dialog boxes could not be properly populated
81 - Various commands have been hardened against errors when called
84 * Translation updates. Thanks to our translators!
86 Changes from 0.8.5 to 0.10.0:
88 * The QUICK CLUSTER command has a /PRINT subcommand which shows
89 the initial cluster centres and the final cluster membership of
90 each case. The clustering algorithm has also been updated, so
91 as to produce better separated clusters.
93 * A Russian localisation has been contributed.
95 * The GRAPH command now has a /BAR subcommand to draw barcharts.
97 * If the DECIMAL character is set to COMMA then the ',' character
98 will not be treated as a separator by DATA LIST.
100 * The graphical user interface (psppire) has been changed as follows:
102 - It now uses Gtk+ version 3 instead of version 2. Accordingly, it has a
103 somewhat different look and feel.
105 - There is now a Graphs menu to access the GRAPH command.
107 - The status of dialog box widgets are now preserved between calls
108 to the same dialog box for the same dataset.
110 - The dialog box for the Logistic Regression command will now
111 infer that string variables or any varible with a "measure"
112 of Nominal or Ordinal are to be treated as categorical variables
113 and will generate syntax accordingly.
115 * The pspp-convert utility can now decrypt encrypted syntax files.
116 The encrypted syntax file format is unacceptably insecure, so to
117 discourage its use PSPP and PSPPIRE do not directly read or write
124 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
126 - REPLACE, for search-and-replace of one string with another.
128 - STRUNC, to truncate a string and trim trailing spaces.
130 - MEDIAN, to compute the median of its arguments.
132 - The TRUNC function in expressions now supports additional arguments
133 for truncating to values other than integers and to indicate a level
134 of rounding fuzz. The default rounding fuzz may now be controlled
135 and displayed with SET FUZZBITS and SHOW FUZZBITS, respectively.
137 * Bug fixes, including the following notable ones:
139 - The correlation coefficient in the paired samples t-test
140 procedure is now correctly calculated when presented with
143 - The ESCAPE subcommand has been removed from GET DATA /TYPE=TXT.
144 For compatibility, the behavior that ESCAPE enabled is now the
145 default and only supported behavior.
147 - Rendering of the variable and data sheets in right-to-left locales
150 - The Mann-Whitney test, when run on a dataset containing values
151 of the group variable, other than those defining the test groups,
152 would incorrectly calculate the ranks. This has been corrected.
154 * The IMPORTCASES subcommand on GET DATA is now ignored, for
157 Changes from 0.8.4 to 0.8.5:
159 * The FREQUENCIES and CROSSTABS commands can now generate barcharts.
161 * The FACTOR command can now perform PROMAX rotations.
163 * SPSS/PC+ system files are now supported on GET and other commands
164 that read SPSS system files. The pspp-convert program can now read
165 SPSS/PC+ system files. Writing the obsolete SPSS/PC+ system file
166 format is not supported.
168 * SYSFILE INFO can now read SPSS/PC+ system files and SPSS portable
171 * FREQUENCIES: A bug was fixed where an assertion failure occured
172 when an empty dataset was presented.
174 * The GRAPH command is now available. Initially it supports
175 scatterplots and histograms.
177 * The RND operator in expressions now supports additional operands
178 for rounding to values other than integers and to indicate a level
179 of rounding fuzz. The default rounding fuzz may now be controlled
180 and displayed with SET FUZZBITS and SHOW FUZZBITS, respectively.
182 Changes from 0.8.3 to 0.8.4:
184 * Formatting of SYSFILE INFO output was made easier to read.
186 * Bug fixes, including the following notable ones:
188 - FREQUENCIES works properly for string variables. (This bug was
189 introduced in 0.8.2.)
191 - CROSSTABS now correctly computes all of the measures that it
192 offers. Some measures have been removed because they were not
195 - The NPAR TESTS calculation of significance for the RUNS
196 subcommand has been corrected.
198 - Planned comparisons in ONEWAY ANOVA now correctly handle negative
201 - The COUNT command now correctly treats missing values as
204 - Conformance fixes to Open Document output format.
206 Changes from 0.8.2 to 0.8.3:
208 * Independent T-Tests displayed the standard error of the difference
209 and the confidence interval for the unequal variances case, where
210 the equal variances case should have been. This has been fixed.
212 * REGRESSION now recognises /STATISTICS=CI(x) which causes confidence
213 intervals for the coefficients to be printed.
215 * When DESCRIPTIVES calculates Z scores, it now omits cases filtered
216 by the current FILTER settings.
218 * PSPPIRE graphical user interface improvements:
220 - Dialog boxes with source variable lists can now choose the sort
221 order; right click and select from the popup menu.
223 - File|Open now allows an encoding to be selected for opening
226 - File|Display Data File Information|External File... now allows an
227 encoding to be selected.
229 - A problem with the Means dialog has been resolved (bug #41433).
231 - Several problems related to the input of spreadsheets have been
232 fixed (bug #41657, #41620
234 * System file related improvements:
236 - With ENCODING="DETECT", SYSFILE INFO can now help the user to
237 pick an encoding for reading a system file that does not identify
240 - SYSFILE INFO now accepts an ENCODING subcommand to specify the
241 character encoding of string data in the system file.
243 - Variable labels over 255 bytes long are now accepted without
244 truncation (bug #41863).
246 - System files that contain duplicate variable names may now be
247 read successfully (bug #41475).
249 Changes from 0.8.1 to 0.8.2:
251 * Charts are now rendered with colours from the Tango palette instead
252 of fully saturated primaries.
254 * Support for new system file variants:
256 - PSPP can now read and write ZCOMPRESSED system files, which
257 compress data much more effectively than older "compressed"
258 files. (The older format is still supported.)
260 - PSPP can now decrypt encrypted system files, using the new
261 pspp-convert utility. The encrypted system file format is
262 unacceptably insecure, so to discourage its use PSPP and PSPPIRE
263 do not directly read or write this format.
265 * Missing values for long string variables are now read from and
266 written to system files in an SPSS-compatible fashion.
268 (Earlier versions of PSPP that supported missing values for long
269 string variables wrote them to system files in an SPSS-incompatible
270 way. To fix the problem, read the system file with this version of
271 PSPP and then save a new copy of it.)
273 * pspp-convert, a new standalone utility for converting SPSS system
274 and portable files to other formats, is now included. The initial
275 version supports comma-separated value files as output format.
276 pspp-convert can also decrypt encrypted system files.
280 - zlib is now a required dependency. (Previously it was optional.)
282 Changes from 0.8.0 to 0.8.1:
288 * Changes to existing commands:
290 - CROSSTABS: The requirement that one expected count must be less than five
291 before Fishers Exact Test will be reported has been removed.
293 * PSPPIRE graphical user interface improvements:
295 - A new set of icons has been contributed.
297 - Syntax windows now parse syntax in "auto" mode, which in practice
298 should mean that both "batch" and "interactive" syntax now works,
299 instead of just "interactive" syntax.
301 - The variable pane of data windows now include a Role column.
305 - System files written by IBM SPSS 21 are now read without warnings.
307 - System files written by "VOXCO INTERVIEWER 4.3" are now read
310 - PSPPIRE should now more gracefully handle syntax files that contain
313 Changes from 0.6.2 to 0.8.0:
319 - DATAFILE ATTRIBUTES
326 - LOGISTIC REGRESSION
330 - PRESERVE and RESTORE
334 - SAVE TRANSLATE to CSV and tab-delimited files
336 - VARIABLE ATTRIBUTES
338 * Changes to existing commands:
340 - AUTORECODE has a new GROUP subcommand.
342 - CROSSTABS has been re-implemented to fix numerous bugs.
344 - EXAMINE: /MISSING=LISTWISE is now the default.
346 - DO REPEAT command has been reimplemented. Now, when DO REPEAT
347 contains an INCLUDE or INSERT command, substitutions are not
348 applied to the included file.
350 - FILE HANDLE has a new ENDS subcommand to select CR or CRLF new-lines.
352 - HOST has been updated to use more modern syntax.
354 - Most commands that work with data files now support a new
357 - MISSING VALUES can now assign missing values to long string
360 - ONEWAY: the POSTHOC subcommand is now implemented.
362 - The following new subcommands to NPAR TESTS have been implemented:
363 COCHRAN, FRIEDMAN, JONCKHEERE-TERPSTRA, KENDALL, KRUSKAL-WALLIS, MANN-WHITNEY,
364 MCNEMAR, SIGN, WILCOXON, and RUNS
366 - SET and SHOW no longer have ENDCMD, NULLINE, PROMPT, CPROMPT, and
367 DPROMPT subcommands. The defaults are now fixed values.
369 - SHOW now has a JOURNAL subcommand, to show the location of the
372 - VALUE LABELS can now assign value labels to long string
375 * Other language changes:
377 - The new DATASET commands replace the "scratch file" PSPP
378 extension, which is no longer supported.
380 - Strings may now include arbitrary Unicode code points specified
381 in hexadecimal, using the syntax U'hhhh'. For example, Unicode
382 code point U+1D11E, the musical G clef character, may be
383 expressed as U'1D11E'.
385 See the "Tokens" section in the PSPP manual for more information.
387 - In previous versions of PSPP, in a string expressed in
388 hexadecimal with X'hh' syntax, the hexadecimal digits expressed
389 bytes in the locale encoding. In this version of PSPP, X'hh'
390 syntax always expresses bytes in UTF-8 encoding.
392 See the "Tokens" section in the PSPP manual for more information.
394 * PSPPIRE graphical user interface improvements:
396 - Added support for non-ASCII characters in strings, labels and
399 - A "Split Window" function is available, which makes it easier to
400 see different parts of a large data file.
402 - Data files can now be opened by specifing their name as the first
403 argument. This means that on a properly configured desktop, double
404 clicking on an icon will open the file.
406 - Foreign formats, such as Gnumeric, OpenDocument and CSV can be imported
407 via using an "intelligent" application assistant dialog.
411 - The new "cairo" output driver supports output in PostScript, PDF,
412 and SVG formats. Its functionality is a superset of that of the
413 "postscript" driver, which has been removed. You must have Cairo
414 and Pango installed to build the "cairo" driver.
416 - Charts are now produced with Cairo and Pango, instead of libplot.
417 Without them, the new graphing features will not work. If you do
418 not have Cairo and Pango installed, you must run `configure' with
421 - The plain text output driver now properly supports multibyte UTF-8
422 characters, including double-width characters and combining
425 - Output to OpenDocument format is now supported.
427 - The HTML output is much improved.
429 * The "pspp" program has a new option --batch (or -b) that selects
430 "batch" syntax mode. In previous versions of PSPP this syntax mode
431 was the default. Now a new "auto" syntax mode is the default. In
432 "auto" mode, PSPP interprets most syntax files correctly regardless
433 of their intended syntax mode.
435 See the "Syntax Variants" section in the PSPP manual for more
438 * The "pspp" program has a new option --syntax-encoding that
439 specifies the encoding for syntax files listed on the command line,
440 as well as the default encoding for syntax files included with
441 INCLUDE or INSERT. The default is to accept the system locale
442 encoding, UTF-8, UTF-16, or UTF-32, automatically detecting which
443 one the system file uses.
445 See the documentation for the INSERT command in the PSPP manual for
448 * Text data files that PRINT and WRITE creates now use the system
449 native line ends by default (CRLF on Windows, LF only elsewhere).
450 Use the new ENDS subcommand on FILE HANDLE to override the default.
452 * A new Perl module allows Perl programs to read and write PSPP
455 * A tutorial chapter has been added to the user manual.
457 Changes from 0.6.1 to 0.6.2:
461 - Dutch, thanks to Harry Thijssen.
463 - Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Michel Boaventura.
465 Thanks for translations are also due to the coordinators at
466 translationproject.org.
468 * Statistical bug fixes:
470 - REGRESSION: Report correct standard error of the estimate (bug
473 - T-TEST: Report correct significance of paired sample T-test in
474 the common case (bug #26936) and corner cases. Thanks to Mike
475 Griffiths and Matej Cepl for reporting these bugs.
477 * Build fixes and changes:
479 - Fix build with GTK+ 2.17.4 and later.
481 - Make running "make" after running "configure" with different
482 settings reliably rebuild version.c.
484 - Cygwin and MinGW build fixes.
486 - Fixes for building with recent gnulib.
488 - The Makefile now honors two new variables, PSPP_LDFLAGS and
489 PSPPIRE_LDFLAGS, that affect linking of the PSPP and PSPPIRE
490 binaries, respectively. This makes building easier for some
493 - Fixes for "configure --enable-relocatable" (bug #25508).
495 * Data file bug fixes and changes:
497 - Fix reading text data files that contain a mix of white space
498 and commas. Now "a ,b" is treated as two fields containing "a"
499 and "b"; previously it was treated as three, with an empty field
502 - Fix writing corrupted .sav files on Windows.
504 - Fix writing variable labels longer than 252 bytes to save files.
505 Thanks to Robert Westlund for reporting this bug.
507 - Fix writing corrupted .por files (bug #26034).
509 - Fix reading .por files whose initial lines are not padded out
510 with spaces as expected.
512 - PSPP will no longer issue warnings about some .sav file records
513 or values that it does not understand. These warnings were
514 harmless, but needlessly alarmed some users.
516 - Fix crash reading empty string fields from PostgreSQL databases.
518 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
520 - Users may now control precision of output statistics. Instead
521 of hard coding the width and decimals of output numbers, respect
522 the default format in most instances. Counts are now normally
523 displayed with the format of the weight variable, if any.
525 - Fix crash when an INSERT command specifies the name of a file
526 that does not exist (bug #24569).
528 - Fix crash when CROSSTABS specifies a long-string variable (bugs
531 - Fix crash drawing pie charts with many segments.
533 - Fix crash when NUMERIC specifies an invalid format.
535 * PSPPIRE bug fixes and changes:
537 - On Windows, write the output file to the user's home directory
538 instead of the current directory, to better match user
541 - Some data editor fixes.
545 - Fix typo in BINOMIAL section of user manual (bug #25892).
547 Changes from 0.6.0 to 0.6.1:
549 * Statistical bug fixes:
551 - Report correct standardized regression coefficients in linear
552 regression output (bug #23567).
554 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
556 - Avoid crash with pie charts (bug #24014).
558 - Don't append % to count totals (bug #24003).
560 - Don't crash on bad input (bug #24031).
562 - Don't crash if "end data." is not left aligned (bug #24115).
564 - Change default workspace value to 64 MB, to avoid unnecessary
565 disk accesses on modern machines.
569 - Add ".sav" or ".por" suffix to filename when saving with Save_As
572 - Make it possible to reopen the output window on Windows (bug
575 - A POSIX regular expression library is now included and used
576 automatically if the host does not have one or has one that is
579 * Build fixes and changes:
581 - Work around bug in GSL that prevented build with recent GCC
582 versions without manually adding -fgnu89-inline to CFLAGS.
584 - Also warn about missing prerequisites as we encounter them (bug
587 - Distribute necessary files to allow users working from the
588 distributed tarball to configure with --enable-gui-tools.
590 - Append $(EXEEXT_FOR_BUILD) to output file name when building
591 q2c, fixing build problems on Windows.
593 - GSL 1.8 or later is now required.
595 - Build errors with --enable-relocatable were fixed.
597 * The German translations were removed, since native German speakers
598 found them too poor to be useful.
600 Changes from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0:
602 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
603 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
605 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE. This
606 interface allows you to enter data and variable definitions
607 interactively. Commands may be executed in syntax form, or by
608 using the interactive dialog boxes available from the dropdown
611 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
614 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
618 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
619 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
620 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
622 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
623 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
624 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
626 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
627 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
629 Statistical procedure changes:
631 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
632 via least-squares estimation.
634 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
635 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
637 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
640 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
641 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
643 User interface changes:
645 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
646 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
648 * PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
651 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
652 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
653 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
656 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
657 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
658 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
659 executed as if `+' had been specified.
661 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
662 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
663 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
665 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
666 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
667 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
668 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
673 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
674 manual for a full description of the available options.
676 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
677 "make install" will do this for you.
679 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
680 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
682 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
683 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
684 Previously, by default output was written only to file
685 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
686 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
691 - This driver now supports charts in output. Charts are written
692 as separate files that the main output file refers to. By
693 default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
694 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
696 - Configurations are provided that use VT100 (and xterm)
697 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
698 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
702 - The default paper size is now determined using the PAPERSIZE
703 environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale category on
704 systems that support it. If these are not set, the default is
705 now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the default,
706 set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
708 - Font metrics are now read from AFM files, instead of
709 Groff-format metrics files. PostScript fonts can now be
712 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
713 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install
714 AFM files for the standard PostScript fonts, including the
715 ones that the PostScript driver uses by default.
717 - Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
718 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
719 longer needed, or supported.
721 - The PostScript prologue is no longer obtained from the
722 "ps-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file is
723 no longer needed, or supported.
727 - The HTML prologue is no longer obtained from the
728 "html-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file
729 is no longer needed, or supported.
731 Command language changes:
733 * The following commands are new:
735 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files and
736 text data files. It will be extended later to read other
737 types of foreign data.
739 - CD, to change the current directory.
741 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
743 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
746 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
748 - CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
750 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
753 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
755 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
757 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
759 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
761 * PSPP now supports very long string variables (over 255 bytes
764 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
766 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
767 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
768 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
770 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
771 re-implemented in a later release:
773 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
779 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
780 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
781 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
783 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
784 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
786 "Scratch files", a new PSPP extension:
788 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
789 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
790 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
791 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
794 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
795 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
796 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
798 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
799 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
800 reassigned to new files.
802 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
803 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
804 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
805 documentation on those particular commands.
809 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
810 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
811 format of these files.
813 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
814 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
815 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
816 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
819 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
820 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
821 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
822 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
823 native floating point format.
825 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
826 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
827 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
829 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
830 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
832 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
833 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
834 subcommands has been added.
836 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
837 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
838 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
841 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
842 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
844 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
845 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
846 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
850 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
851 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
854 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
855 have been extensively revised and improved.
857 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
860 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
862 Changes in build dependencies:
864 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
867 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
868 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
869 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
871 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
873 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
875 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
877 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
885 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
886 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
889 * T-TEST (re-written).
891 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
892 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
895 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
896 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
897 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
898 third-party software.
900 * SET EPOCH implemented.
902 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
905 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
907 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
908 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
909 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
911 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
912 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
914 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
915 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
917 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
918 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
919 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
922 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
923 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
926 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
929 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
932 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
933 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
934 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
936 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
938 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
940 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
943 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
944 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
947 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
948 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
950 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
954 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
957 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
958 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
960 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
961 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
963 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
966 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
969 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
972 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
973 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
974 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
976 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
978 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
980 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
984 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
986 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
990 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
991 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
993 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
995 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
997 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
1001 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
1003 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
1005 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
1006 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
1008 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
1009 didn't like being the last command in a file.
1011 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
1012 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
1013 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
1014 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1016 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
1017 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1018 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1020 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
1021 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
1022 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
1024 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
1025 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
1026 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1029 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
1030 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1033 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1034 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1036 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
1037 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1038 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1040 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
1041 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
1042 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
1044 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
1045 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
1046 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1049 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
1050 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1053 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1054 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1056 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
1059 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
1060 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1061 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1063 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
1064 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
1068 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
1069 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
1071 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
1072 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
1073 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
1075 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
1077 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
1081 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
1083 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
1085 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
1086 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
1088 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
1090 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
1091 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1093 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
1094 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
1096 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
1097 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
1100 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
1101 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
1106 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
1107 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
1108 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
1110 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
1114 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
1116 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
1117 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
1120 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
1121 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
1122 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
1124 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
1126 Procedures now implemented:
1127 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
1129 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
1132 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
1133 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
1144 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
1145 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
1148 New command-line features:
1149 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
1150 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
1151 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
1152 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
1153 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
1155 Operator LAG is now implemented.
1157 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
1159 Table output manager completely rewritten.
1161 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
1162 reinstall your `devices' file.
1164 New output driver for HTML.
1166 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
1168 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
1170 Added Texinfo documentation for:
1171 * PSPP system file format
1172 * PSPP portable file format
1173 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
1176 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
1177 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
1179 Changes for version 0.1.0:
1181 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
1182 versions, please see ONEWS.
1184 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1185 Copyright information:
1187 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
1188 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
1189 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
1190 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1192 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
1193 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
1194 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
1198 version-control: never