1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Time-stamp: <2006-04-03 10:56:18 blp>
3 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end for copying conditions.
6 Please send PSPP bug reports to bug-gnu-pspp@gnu.org.
12 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
13 manual for a full description of the available options.
15 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
16 "make install" will do this for you.
18 * The PostScript driver now obtains font metrics from AFM files,
19 instead of Groff-format metrics files. It can now embed
20 PostScript fonts in its output.
22 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
23 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install AFM
24 files for the standard PostScript files, including the ones that
25 the PostScript driver uses by default.
27 Changes since 0.4.0 to 0.4.1:
29 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
31 * CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
35 * XEXPORT (a PSPP extension).
39 A new PSPP extension called "scratch files" has been implemented.
40 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
41 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
42 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
43 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
46 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
47 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
48 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
50 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
51 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
52 reassigned to new files.
54 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
55 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
56 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
57 documentation on those particular commands.
59 PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
62 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
64 Changes in build dependencies:
66 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
69 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
70 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
71 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
73 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
75 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
77 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
79 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
87 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
88 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
91 * T-TEST (re-written).
93 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
94 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
97 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
98 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
99 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
100 third-party software.
102 * SET EPOCH implemented.
104 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
107 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
109 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
110 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
111 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
113 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
114 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
116 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
117 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
119 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
120 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
121 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
124 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
125 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
128 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
131 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
134 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
135 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
136 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
138 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
140 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
142 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
145 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
146 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
149 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
150 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
152 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
156 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
159 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
160 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
162 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
163 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
165 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
168 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
171 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
174 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
175 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
176 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
178 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
180 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
182 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
186 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
188 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
192 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
193 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
195 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
197 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
199 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
203 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
205 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
207 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
208 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
210 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
211 didn't like being the last command in a file.
213 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
214 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
215 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
216 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
218 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
219 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
220 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
222 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
223 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
224 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
226 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
227 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
228 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
231 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
232 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
235 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
236 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
238 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
239 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
240 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
242 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
243 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
244 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
246 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
247 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
248 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
251 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
252 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
255 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
256 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
258 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
261 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
262 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
263 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
265 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
266 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
270 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
271 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
273 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
274 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
275 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
277 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
279 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
283 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
285 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
287 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
288 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
290 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
292 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
293 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
295 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
296 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
298 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
299 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
302 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
303 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
308 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
309 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
310 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
312 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
316 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
318 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
319 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
322 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
323 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
324 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
326 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
328 Procedures now implemented:
329 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
331 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
334 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
335 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
346 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
347 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
350 New command-line features:
351 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
352 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
353 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
354 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
355 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
357 Operator LAG is now implemented.
359 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
361 Table output manager completely rewritten.
363 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
364 reinstall your `devices' file.
366 New output driver for HTML.
368 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
370 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
372 Added Texinfo documentation for:
373 * PSPP system file format
374 * PSPP portable file format
375 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
378 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
379 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
381 Changes for version 0.1.0:
383 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
384 versions, please see ONEWS.
386 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
387 Copyright information:
389 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
391 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
392 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
393 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
394 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
396 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
397 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
398 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
402 version-control: never