1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Time-stamp: <2010-11-21 11:58:30 blp>
3 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000, 2008, 2009, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end for copying conditions.
6 Please send PSPP bug reports to bug-gnu-pspp@gnu.org.
8 Changes from 0.7.3 to 0.7.6:
10 * NPAR TESTS now supports the /KRUSKAL-WALLIS and /RUNS subcommands.
12 * AUTORECODE now supports the /GROUP subcommand.
14 * The MRSETS command is now implemented.
16 * SAVE TRANSLATE is now implemented, with initial support for saving
17 data in comma-separated value and tab-delimited formats.
19 * The PRESERVE and RESTORE commands are now implemented.
21 * The HOST command has been updated to use more modern syntax.
23 * The SET and SHOW commands no longer support the ENDCMD, NULLINE,
24 PROMPT, CPROMPT, and DPROMPT subcommands. The defaults are now the
25 only supported values.
27 Changes from 0.7.2 to 0.7.3:
29 * Charts are now produced with Cairo and Pango, instead of libplot.
30 Without them, the new graphing features will not work. If you do
31 not have Cairo and Pango installed, you must run `configure' with
34 * The new "cairo" output driver supports output in PostScript, PDF,
35 and SVG formats. Its functionality is a superset of that of the
36 "postscript" driver, which has been removed. You must have Cairo
37 and Pango installed to build the "cairo" driver.
39 Changes from 0.7.1 to 0.7.2:
41 * Updated Perl module interface.
43 * Value labels for long string variables are now supported.
45 * Missing values for long string variables are now supported.
47 Changes from 0.7.0 to 0.7.1:
49 * Added a perl module to facilitate reading and writing of pspp system
50 files from perl programs.
52 Changes from 0.6.2-pre6 to 0.7.0:
54 * Custom variable and data file attributes are now supported.
55 Commands VARIABLE ATTRIBUTE and DATAFILE ATTRIBUTE have been added
56 for setting and clear attributes. Support for attributes has also
57 been added to commands that read and write system files, such as
58 SAVE and GET, as well as to the DISPLAY command.
60 * Numererous improvements to the Graphical User Interface have
61 made. Notable improvements include:
63 - Non-Ascii characters in strings, labels and variable names are
66 - A "Split Window" function is available, which makes it easier to
67 see different parts of a large data file.
69 - Data files can now be opened by specifing their name as the first
70 argument. This means that on a properly configured desktop, double
71 clicking on an icon will open the file.
74 * New statistical procedures:
79 NPAR TESTS now supports the WILCOXON and SIGN subcommands.
81 The CROSSTABS command has been completely re-implemented to fix numerous bugs.
83 * Three new commands to combine data files have been added: MATCH FILES,
86 * A tutorial chapter has been added to the user manual.
88 Changes from 0.6.1 to 0.6.2
92 - Dutch, thanks to Harry Thijssen.
94 - Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Michel Boaventura.
96 Thanks for translations are also due to the coordinators at
97 translationproject.org.
99 * Statistical bug fixes:
101 - REGRESSION: Report correct standard error of the estimate (bug
104 - T-TEST: Report correct significance of paired sample T-test in
105 the common case (bug #26936) and corner cases. Thanks to Mike
106 Griffiths and Matej Cepl for reporting these bugs.
108 * Build fixes and changes:
110 - Fix build with GTK+ 2.17.4 and later.
112 - Make running "make" after running "configure" with different
113 settings reliably rebuild version.c.
115 - Cygwin and MinGW build fixes.
117 - Fixes for building with recent gnulib.
119 - The Makefile now honors two new variables, PSPP_LDFLAGS and
120 PSPPIRE_LDFLAGS, that affect linking of the PSPP and PSPPIRE
121 binaries, respectively. This makes building easier for some
124 - Fixes for "configure --enable-relocatable" (bug #25508).
126 * Data file bug fixes and changes:
128 - Fix reading text data files that contain a mix of white space
129 and commas. Now "a ,b" is treated as two fields containing "a"
130 and "b"; previously it was treated as three, with an empty field
133 - Fix writing corrupted .sav files on Windows.
135 - Fix writing variable labels longer than 252 bytes to save files.
136 Thanks to Robert Westlund for reporting this bug.
138 - Fix writing corrupted .por files (bug #26034).
140 - Fix reading .por files whose initial lines are not padded out
141 with spaces as expected.
143 - PSPP will no longer issue warnings about some .sav file records
144 or values that it does not understand. These warnings were
145 harmless, but needlessly alarmed some users.
147 - Fix crash reading empty string fields from PostgreSQL databases.
149 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
151 - Users may now control precision of output statistics. Instead
152 of hard coding the width and decimals of output numbers, respect
153 the default format in most instances. Counts are now normally
154 displayed with the format of the weight variable, if any.
156 - Fix crash when an INSERT command specifies the name of a file
157 that does not exist (bug #24569).
159 - Fix crash when CROSSTABS specifies a long-string variable (bugs
162 - Fix crash drawing pie charts with many segments.
164 - Fix crash when NUMERIC specifies an invalid format.
166 * PSPPIRE bug fixes and changes:
168 - On Windows, write the output file to the user's home directory
169 instead of the current directory, to better match user
172 - Some data editor fixes.
176 - Fix typo in BINOMIAL section of user manual (bug #25892).
178 Changes from 0.6.0 to 0.6.1:
180 * Statistical bug fixes:
182 - Report correct standardized regression coefficients in linear
183 regression output (bug #23567).
185 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
187 - Avoid crash with pie charts (bug #24014).
189 - Don't append % to count totals (bug #24003).
191 - Don't crash on bad input (bug #24031).
193 - Don't crash if "end data." is not left aligned (bug #24115).
195 - Change default workspace value to 64 MB, to avoid unnecessary
196 disk accesses on modern machines.
200 - Add ".sav" or ".por" suffix to filename when saving with Save_As
203 - Make it possible to reopen the output window on Windows (bug
206 - A POSIX regular expression library is now included and used
207 automatically if the host does not have one or has one that is
210 * Build fixes and changes:
212 - Work around bug in GSL that prevented build with recent GCC
213 versions without manually adding -fgnu89-inline to CFLAGS.
215 - Also warn about missing prerequisites as we encounter them (bug
218 - Distribute necessary files to allow users working from the
219 distributed tarball to configure with --enable-gui-tools.
221 - Append $(EXEEXT_FOR_BUILD) to output file name when building
222 q2c, fixing build problems on Windows.
224 - GSL 1.8 or later is now required.
226 - Build errors with --enable-relocatable were fixed.
228 * The German translations were removed, since native German speakers
229 found them too poor to be useful.
231 Changes from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0:
233 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
234 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
236 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE. This
237 interface allows you to enter data and variable definitions
238 interactively. Commands may be executed in syntax form, or by
239 using the interactive dialog boxes available from the dropdown
242 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
245 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
249 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
250 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
251 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
253 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
254 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
255 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
257 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
258 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
260 Statistical procedure changes:
262 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
263 via least-squares estimation.
265 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
266 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
268 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
271 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
272 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
274 User interface changes:
276 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
277 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
279 * PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
282 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
283 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
284 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
287 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
288 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
289 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
290 executed as if `+' had been specified.
292 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
293 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
294 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
296 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
297 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
298 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
299 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
304 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
305 manual for a full description of the available options.
307 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
308 "make install" will do this for you.
310 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
311 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
313 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
314 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
315 Previously, by default output was written only to file
316 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
317 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
322 - This driver now supports charts in output. Charts are written
323 as separate files that the main output file refers to. By
324 default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
325 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
327 - Configurations are provided that use VT100 (and xterm)
328 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
329 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
333 - The default paper size is now determined using the PAPERSIZE
334 environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale category on
335 systems that support it. If these are not set, the default is
336 now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the default,
337 set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
339 - Font metrics are now read from AFM files, instead of
340 Groff-format metrics files. PostScript fonts can now be
343 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
344 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install
345 AFM files for the standard PostScript fonts, including the
346 ones that the PostScript driver uses by default.
348 - Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
349 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
350 longer needed, or supported.
352 - The PostScript prologue is no longer obtained from the
353 "ps-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file is
354 no longer needed, or supported.
358 - The HTML prologue is no longer obtained from the
359 "html-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file
360 is no longer needed, or supported.
362 Command language changes:
364 * The following commands are new:
366 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files and
367 text data files. It will be extended later to read other
368 types of foreign data.
370 - CD, to change the current directory.
372 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
374 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
377 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
379 - CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
381 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
384 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
386 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
388 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
390 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
392 * PSPP now supports very long string variables (over 255 bytes
395 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
397 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
398 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
399 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
401 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
402 re-implemented in a later release:
404 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
410 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
411 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
412 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
414 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
415 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
417 "Scratch files", a new PSPP extension:
419 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
420 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
421 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
422 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
425 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
426 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
427 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
429 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
430 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
431 reassigned to new files.
433 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
434 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
435 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
436 documentation on those particular commands.
440 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
441 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
442 format of these files.
444 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
445 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
446 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
447 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
450 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
451 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
452 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
453 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
454 native floating point format.
456 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
457 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
458 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
460 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
461 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
463 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
464 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
465 subcommands has been added.
467 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
468 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
469 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
472 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
473 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
475 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
476 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
477 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
481 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
482 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
485 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
486 have been extensively revised and improved.
488 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
491 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
493 Changes in build dependencies:
495 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
498 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
499 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
500 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
502 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
504 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
506 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
508 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
516 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
517 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
520 * T-TEST (re-written).
522 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
523 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
526 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
527 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
528 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
529 third-party software.
531 * SET EPOCH implemented.
533 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
536 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
538 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
539 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
540 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
542 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
543 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
545 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
546 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
548 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
549 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
550 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
553 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
554 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
557 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
560 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
563 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
564 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
565 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
567 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
569 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
571 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
574 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
575 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
578 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
579 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
581 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
585 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
588 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
589 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
591 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
592 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
594 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
597 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
600 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
603 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
604 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
605 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
607 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
609 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
611 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
615 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
617 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
621 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
622 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
624 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
626 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
628 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
632 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
634 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
636 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
637 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
639 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
640 didn't like being the last command in a file.
642 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
643 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
644 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
645 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
647 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
648 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
649 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
651 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
652 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
653 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
655 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
656 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
657 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
660 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
661 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
664 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
665 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
667 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
668 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
669 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
671 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
672 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
673 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
675 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
676 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
677 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
680 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
681 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
684 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
685 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
687 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
690 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
691 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
692 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
694 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
695 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
699 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
700 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
702 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
703 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
704 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
706 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
708 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
712 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
714 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
716 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
717 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
719 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
721 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
722 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
724 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
725 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
727 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
728 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
731 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
732 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
737 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
738 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
739 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
741 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
745 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
747 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
748 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
751 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
752 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
753 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
755 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
757 Procedures now implemented:
758 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
760 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
763 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
764 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
775 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
776 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
779 New command-line features:
780 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
781 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
782 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
783 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
784 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
786 Operator LAG is now implemented.
788 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
790 Table output manager completely rewritten.
792 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
793 reinstall your `devices' file.
795 New output driver for HTML.
797 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
799 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
801 Added Texinfo documentation for:
802 * PSPP system file format
803 * PSPP portable file format
804 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
807 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
808 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
810 Changes for version 0.1.0:
812 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
813 versions, please see ONEWS.
815 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
816 Copyright information:
818 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
819 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
820 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
821 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
823 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
824 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
825 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
829 version-control: never