1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Time-stamp: <2010-05-21 16:40:53 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 0.7.5:
10 * The MRSETS command is now implemented.
12 Changes from 0.7.2 to 0.7.3:
14 * Charts are now produced with Cairo and Pango, instead of libplot.
15 Without them, the new graphing features will not work. If you do
16 not have Cairo and Pango installed, you must run `configure' with
19 * The new "cairo" output driver supports output in PostScript, PDF,
20 and SVG formats. Its functionality is a superset of that of the
21 "postscript" driver, which has been removed. You must have Cairo
22 and Pango installed to build the "cairo" driver.
24 Changes from 0.7.1 to 0.7.2:
26 * Updated Perl module interface.
28 * Value labels for long string variables are now supported.
30 * Missing values for long string variables are now supported.
32 Changes from 0.7.0 to 0.7.1:
34 * Added a perl module to facilitate reading and writing of pspp system
35 files from perl programs.
37 Changes from 0.6.2-pre6 to 0.7.0:
39 * Custom variable and data file attributes are now supported.
40 Commands VARIABLE ATTRIBUTE and DATAFILE ATTRIBUTE have been added
41 for setting and clear attributes. Support for attributes has also
42 been added to commands that read and write system files, such as
43 SAVE and GET, as well as to the DISPLAY command.
45 * Numererous improvements to the Graphical User Interface have
46 made. Notable improvements include:
48 - Non-Ascii characters in strings, labels and variable names are
51 - A "Split Window" function is available, which makes it easier to
52 see different parts of a large data file.
54 - Data files can now be opened by specifing their name as the first
55 argument. This means that on a properly configured desktop, double
56 clicking on an icon will open the file.
59 * New statistical procedures:
64 NPAR TESTS now supports the WILCOXON and SIGN subcommands.
66 The CROSSTABS command has been completely re-implemented to fix numerous bugs.
68 * Three new commands to combine data files have been added: MATCH FILES,
71 * A tutorial chapter has been added to the user manual.
73 Changes from 0.6.1 to 0.6.2
77 - Dutch, thanks to Harry Thijssen.
79 - Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Michel Boaventura.
81 Thanks for translations are also due to the coordinators at
82 translationproject.org.
84 * Statistical bug fixes:
86 - REGRESSION: Report correct standard error of the estimate (bug
89 - T-TEST: Report correct significance of paired sample T-test in
90 the common case (bug #26936) and corner cases. Thanks to Mike
91 Griffiths and Matej Cepl for reporting these bugs.
93 * Build fixes and changes:
95 - Fix build with GTK+ 2.17.4 and later.
97 - Make running "make" after running "configure" with different
98 settings reliably rebuild version.c.
100 - Cygwin and MinGW build fixes.
102 - Fixes for building with recent gnulib.
104 - The Makefile now honors two new variables, PSPP_LDFLAGS and
105 PSPPIRE_LDFLAGS, that affect linking of the PSPP and PSPPIRE
106 binaries, respectively. This makes building easier for some
109 - Fixes for "configure --enable-relocatable" (bug #25508).
111 * Data file bug fixes and changes:
113 - Fix reading text data files that contain a mix of white space
114 and commas. Now "a ,b" is treated as two fields containing "a"
115 and "b"; previously it was treated as three, with an empty field
118 - Fix writing corrupted .sav files on Windows.
120 - Fix writing variable labels longer than 252 bytes to save files.
121 Thanks to Robert Westlund for reporting this bug.
123 - Fix writing corrupted .por files (bug #26034).
125 - Fix reading .por files whose initial lines are not padded out
126 with spaces as expected.
128 - PSPP will no longer issue warnings about some .sav file records
129 or values that it does not understand. These warnings were
130 harmless, but needlessly alarmed some users.
132 - Fix crash reading empty string fields from PostgreSQL databases.
134 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
136 - Users may now control precision of output statistics. Instead
137 of hard coding the width and decimals of output numbers, respect
138 the default format in most instances. Counts are now normally
139 displayed with the format of the weight variable, if any.
141 - Fix crash when an INSERT command specifies the name of a file
142 that does not exist (bug #24569).
144 - Fix crash when CROSSTABS specifies a long-string variable (bugs
147 - Fix crash drawing pie charts with many segments.
149 - Fix crash when NUMERIC specifies an invalid format.
151 * PSPPIRE bug fixes and changes:
153 - On Windows, write the output file to the user's home directory
154 instead of the current directory, to better match user
157 - Some data editor fixes.
161 - Fix typo in BINOMIAL section of user manual (bug #25892).
163 Changes from 0.6.0 to 0.6.1:
165 * Statistical bug fixes:
167 - Report correct standardized regression coefficients in linear
168 regression output (bug #23567).
170 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
172 - Avoid crash with pie charts (bug #24014).
174 - Don't append % to count totals (bug #24003).
176 - Don't crash on bad input (bug #24031).
178 - Don't crash if "end data." is not left aligned (bug #24115).
180 - Change default workspace value to 64 MB, to avoid unnecessary
181 disk accesses on modern machines.
185 - Add ".sav" or ".por" suffix to filename when saving with Save_As
188 - Make it possible to reopen the output window on Windows (bug
191 - A POSIX regular expression library is now included and used
192 automatically if the host does not have one or has one that is
195 * Build fixes and changes:
197 - Work around bug in GSL that prevented build with recent GCC
198 versions without manually adding -fgnu89-inline to CFLAGS.
200 - Also warn about missing prerequisites as we encounter them (bug
203 - Distribute necessary files to allow users working from the
204 distributed tarball to configure with --enable-gui-tools.
206 - Append $(EXEEXT_FOR_BUILD) to output file name when building
207 q2c, fixing build problems on Windows.
209 - GSL 1.8 or later is now required.
211 - Build errors with --enable-relocatable were fixed.
213 * The German translations were removed, since native German speakers
214 found them too poor to be useful.
216 Changes from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0:
218 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
219 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
221 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE. This
222 interface allows you to enter data and variable definitions
223 interactively. Commands may be executed in syntax form, or by
224 using the interactive dialog boxes available from the dropdown
227 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
230 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
234 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
235 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
236 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
238 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
239 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
240 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
242 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
243 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
245 Statistical procedure changes:
247 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
248 via least-squares estimation.
250 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
251 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
253 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
256 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
257 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
259 User interface changes:
261 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
262 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
264 * PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
267 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
268 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
269 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
272 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
273 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
274 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
275 executed as if `+' had been specified.
277 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
278 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
279 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
281 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
282 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
283 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
284 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
289 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
290 manual for a full description of the available options.
292 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
293 "make install" will do this for you.
295 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
296 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
298 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
299 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
300 Previously, by default output was written only to file
301 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
302 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
307 - This driver now supports charts in output. Charts are written
308 as separate files that the main output file refers to. By
309 default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
310 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
312 - Configurations are provided that use VT100 (and xterm)
313 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
314 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
318 - The default paper size is now determined using the PAPERSIZE
319 environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale category on
320 systems that support it. If these are not set, the default is
321 now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the default,
322 set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
324 - Font metrics are now read from AFM files, instead of
325 Groff-format metrics files. PostScript fonts can now be
328 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
329 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install
330 AFM files for the standard PostScript fonts, including the
331 ones that the PostScript driver uses by default.
333 - Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
334 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
335 longer needed, or supported.
337 - The PostScript prologue is no longer obtained from the
338 "ps-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file is
339 no longer needed, or supported.
343 - The HTML prologue is no longer obtained from the
344 "html-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file
345 is no longer needed, or supported.
347 Command language changes:
349 * The following commands are new:
351 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files and
352 text data files. It will be extended later to read other
353 types of foreign data.
355 - CD, to change the current directory.
357 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
359 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
362 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
364 - CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
366 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
369 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
371 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
373 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
375 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
377 * PSPP now supports very long string variables (over 255 bytes
380 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
382 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
383 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
384 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
386 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
387 re-implemented in a later release:
389 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
395 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
396 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
397 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
399 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
400 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
402 "Scratch files", a new PSPP extension:
404 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
405 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
406 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
407 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
410 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
411 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
412 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
414 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
415 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
416 reassigned to new files.
418 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
419 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
420 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
421 documentation on those particular commands.
425 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
426 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
427 format of these files.
429 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
430 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
431 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
432 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
435 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
436 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
437 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
438 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
439 native floating point format.
441 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
442 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
443 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
445 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
446 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
448 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
449 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
450 subcommands has been added.
452 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
453 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
454 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
457 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
458 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
460 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
461 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
462 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
466 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
467 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
470 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
471 have been extensively revised and improved.
473 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
476 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
478 Changes in build dependencies:
480 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
483 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
484 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
485 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
487 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
489 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
491 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
493 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
501 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
502 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
505 * T-TEST (re-written).
507 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
508 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
511 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
512 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
513 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
514 third-party software.
516 * SET EPOCH implemented.
518 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
521 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
523 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
524 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
525 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
527 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
528 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
530 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
531 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
533 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
534 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
535 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
538 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
539 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
542 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
545 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
548 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
549 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
550 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
552 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
554 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
556 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
559 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
560 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
563 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
564 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
566 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
570 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
573 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
574 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
576 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
577 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
579 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
582 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
585 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
588 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
589 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
590 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
592 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
594 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
596 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
600 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
602 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
606 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
607 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
609 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
611 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
613 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
617 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
619 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
621 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
622 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
624 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
625 didn't like being the last command in a file.
627 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
628 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
629 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
630 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
632 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
633 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
634 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
636 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
637 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
638 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
640 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
641 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
642 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
645 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
646 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
649 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
650 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
652 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
653 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
654 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
656 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
657 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
658 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
660 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
661 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
662 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
665 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
666 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
669 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
670 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
672 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
675 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
676 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
677 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
679 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
680 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
684 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
685 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
687 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
688 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
689 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
691 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
693 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
697 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
699 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
701 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
702 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
704 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
706 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
707 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
709 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
710 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
712 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
713 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
716 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
717 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
722 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
723 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
724 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
726 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
730 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
732 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
733 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
736 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
737 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
738 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
740 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
742 Procedures now implemented:
743 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
745 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
748 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
749 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
760 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
761 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
764 New command-line features:
765 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
766 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
767 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
768 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
769 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
771 Operator LAG is now implemented.
773 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
775 Table output manager completely rewritten.
777 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
778 reinstall your `devices' file.
780 New output driver for HTML.
782 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
784 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
786 Added Texinfo documentation for:
787 * PSPP system file format
788 * PSPP portable file format
789 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
792 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
793 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
795 Changes for version 0.1.0:
797 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
798 versions, please see ONEWS.
800 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
801 Copyright information:
803 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
804 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
805 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
806 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
808 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
809 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
810 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
814 version-control: never