1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Time-stamp: <2009-02-05 20:31:51 blp>
3 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000, 2008, 2009 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 0.7.1 to 0.7.2:
10 * Updated Perl module interface.
12 Changes from 0.7.0 to 0.7.1:
14 * Added a perl module to facilitate reading and writing of pspp system
15 files from perl programs.
17 Changes from 0.6.1 to 0.7.0:
19 * Custom variable and data file attributes are now supported.
20 Commands VARIABLE ATTRIBUTE and DATAFILE ATTRIBUTE have been added
21 for setting and clear attributes. Support for attributes has also
22 been added to commands that read and write system files, such as
23 SAVE and GET, as well as to the DISPLAY command.
25 Changes from 0.6.0 to 0.6.1:
27 * Statistical bug fixes:
29 - Report correct standardized regression coefficients in linear
30 regression output (bug #23567).
32 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
34 - Avoid crash with pie charts (bug #24014).
36 - Don't append % to count totals (bug #24003).
38 - Don't crash on bad input (bug #24031).
40 - Don't crash if "end data." is not left aligned (bug #24115).
42 - Change default workspace value to 64 MB, to avoid unnecessary
43 disk accesses on modern machines.
47 - Add ".sav" or ".por" suffix to filename when saving with Save_As
50 - Make it possible to reopen the output window on Windows (bug
53 - A POSIX regular expression library is now included and used
54 automatically if the host does not have one or has one that is
57 * Build fixes and changes:
59 - Work around bug in GSL that prevented build with recent GCC
60 versions without manually adding -fgnu89-inline to CFLAGS.
62 - Also warn about missing prerequisites as we encounter them (bug
65 - Distribute necessary files to allow users working from the
66 distributed tarball to configure with --enable-gui-tools.
68 - Append $(EXEEXT_FOR_BUILD) to output file name when building
69 q2c, fixing build problems on Windows.
71 - GSL 1.8 or later is now required.
73 - Build errors with --enable-relocatable were fixed.
75 * The German translations were removed, since native German speakers
76 found them too poor to be useful.
78 Changes from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0:
80 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
81 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
83 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE. This
84 interface allows you to enter data and variable definitions
85 interactively. Commands may be executed in syntax form, or by
86 using the interactive dialog boxes available from the dropdown
89 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
92 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
96 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
97 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
98 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
100 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
101 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
102 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
104 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
105 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
107 Statistical procedure changes:
109 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
110 via least-squares estimation.
112 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
113 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
115 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
118 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
119 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
121 User interface changes:
123 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
124 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
126 * PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
129 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
130 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
131 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
134 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
135 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
136 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
137 executed as if `+' had been specified.
139 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
140 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
141 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
143 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
144 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
145 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
146 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
151 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
152 manual for a full description of the available options.
154 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
155 "make install" will do this for you.
157 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
158 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
160 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
161 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
162 Previously, by default output was written only to file
163 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
164 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
169 - This driver now supports charts in output. Charts are written
170 as separate files that the main output file refers to. By
171 default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
172 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
174 - Configurations are provided that use VT100 (and xterm)
175 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
176 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
180 - The default paper size is now determined using the PAPERSIZE
181 environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale category on
182 systems that support it. If these are not set, the default is
183 now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the default,
184 set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
186 - Font metrics are now read from AFM files, instead of
187 Groff-format metrics files. PostScript fonts can now be
190 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
191 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install
192 AFM files for the standard PostScript fonts, including the
193 ones that the PostScript driver uses by default.
195 - Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
196 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
197 longer needed, or supported.
199 - The PostScript prologue is no longer obtained from the
200 "ps-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file is
201 no longer needed, or supported.
205 - The HTML prologue is no longer obtained from the
206 "html-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file
207 is no longer needed, or supported.
209 Command language changes:
211 * The following commands are new:
213 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files and
214 text data files. It will be extended later to read other
215 types of foreign data.
217 - CD, to change the current directory.
219 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
221 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
224 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
226 - CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
228 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
231 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
233 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
235 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
237 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
239 * PSPP now supports very long string variables (over 255 bytes
242 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
244 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
245 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
246 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
248 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
249 re-implemented in a later release:
251 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
257 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
258 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
259 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
261 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
262 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
264 "Scratch files", a new PSPP extension:
266 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
267 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
268 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
269 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
272 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
273 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
274 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
276 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
277 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
278 reassigned to new files.
280 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
281 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
282 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
283 documentation on those particular commands.
287 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
288 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
289 format of these files.
291 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
292 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
293 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
294 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
297 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
298 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
299 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
300 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
301 native floating point format.
303 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
304 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
305 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
307 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
308 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
310 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
311 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
312 subcommands has been added.
314 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
315 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
316 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
319 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
320 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
322 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
323 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
324 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
328 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
329 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
332 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
333 have been extensively revised and improved.
335 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
338 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
340 Changes in build dependencies:
342 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
345 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
346 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
347 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
349 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
351 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
353 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
355 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
363 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
364 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
367 * T-TEST (re-written).
369 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
370 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
373 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
374 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
375 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
376 third-party software.
378 * SET EPOCH implemented.
380 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
383 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
385 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
386 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
387 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
389 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
390 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
392 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
393 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
395 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
396 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
397 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
400 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
401 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
404 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
407 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
410 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
411 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
412 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
414 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
416 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
418 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
421 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
422 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
425 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
426 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
428 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
432 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
435 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
436 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
438 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
439 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
441 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
444 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
447 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
450 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
451 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
452 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
454 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
456 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
458 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
462 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
464 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
468 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
469 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
471 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
473 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
475 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
479 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
481 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
483 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
484 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
486 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
487 didn't like being the last command in a file.
489 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
490 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
491 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
492 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
494 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
495 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
496 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
498 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
499 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
500 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
502 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
503 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
504 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
507 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
508 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
511 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
512 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
514 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
515 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
516 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
518 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
519 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
520 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
522 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
523 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
524 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
527 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
528 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
531 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
532 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
534 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
537 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
538 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
539 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
541 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
542 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
546 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
547 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
549 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
550 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
551 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
553 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
555 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
559 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
561 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
563 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
564 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
566 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
568 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
569 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
571 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
572 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
574 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
575 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
578 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
579 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
584 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
585 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
586 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
588 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
592 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
594 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
595 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
598 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
599 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
600 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
602 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
604 Procedures now implemented:
605 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
607 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
610 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
611 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
622 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
623 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
626 New command-line features:
627 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
628 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
629 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
630 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
631 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
633 Operator LAG is now implemented.
635 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
637 Table output manager completely rewritten.
639 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
640 reinstall your `devices' file.
642 New output driver for HTML.
644 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
646 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
648 Added Texinfo documentation for:
649 * PSPP system file format
650 * PSPP portable file format
651 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
654 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
655 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
657 Changes for version 0.1.0:
659 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
660 versions, please see ONEWS.
662 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
663 Copyright information:
665 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
667 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
668 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
669 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
670 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
672 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
673 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
674 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
678 version-control: never