1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996-2000, 2008-2016 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 0.8.5 to 0.9.0:
9 * The QUICK CLUSTER command has a /PRINT subcommand which shows
10 the initial cluster centres and the final cluster membership of
11 each case. The clustering algorithm has also been updated, so
12 as to produce better separated clusters.
14 * A Russian localisation has been contributed.
16 * The GRAPH command now has a /BAR subcommand to draw barcharts.
18 * If the DECIMAL character is set to COMMA then the ',' character
19 will not be treated as a separator by DATA LIST.
21 * The graphical user interface (psppire) has been changed as follows:
23 - It now uses Gtk+ version 3 instead of version 2. Accordingly, it has a
24 somewhat different look and feel.
26 - There is now a Graphs menu to access the GRAPH command.
28 - The status of dialog box widgets are now preserved between calls
29 to the same dialog box for the same dataset.
31 - The dialog box for the Logistic Regression command will now
32 infer that string variables or any varible with a "measure"
33 of Nominal or Ordinal are to be treated as categorical variables
34 and will generate syntax accordingly.
36 * The pspp-convert utility can now decrypt encrypted syntax files.
37 The encrypted syntax file format is unacceptably insecure, so to
38 discourage its use PSPP and PSPPIRE do not directly read or write
41 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
43 - REPLACE, for search-and-replace of one string with another.
45 - STRUNC, to truncate a string and trim trailing spaces.
47 - MEDIAN, to compute the median of its arguments.
49 - The TRUNC function in expressions now supports additional arguments
50 for truncating to values other than integers and to indicate a level
51 of rounding fuzz. The default rounding fuzz may now be controlled
52 and displayed with SET FUZZBITS and SHOW FUZZBITS, respectively.
54 * Bug fixes, including the following notable ones:
56 - The correlation coefficient in the paired samples t-test
57 procedure is now correctly calculated when presented with
60 - The ESCAPE subcommand has been removed from GET DATA /TYPE=TXT.
61 For compatibility, the behavior that ESCAPE enabled is now the
62 default and only supported behavior.
64 - Rendering of the variable and data sheets in right-to-left locales
67 - The Mann-Whitney test, when run on a dataset containing values
68 of the group variable, other than those defining the test groups,
69 would incorrectly calculate the ranks. This has been corrected.
71 * The IMPORTCASES subcommand on GET DATA is now ignored, for
74 Changes from 0.8.4 to 0.8.5:
76 * The FREQUENCIES and CROSSTABS commands can now generate barcharts.
78 * The FACTOR command can now perform PROMAX rotations.
80 * SPSS/PC+ system files are now supported on GET and other commands
81 that read SPSS system files. The pspp-convert program can now read
82 SPSS/PC+ system files. Writing the obsolete SPSS/PC+ system file
83 format is not supported.
85 * SYSFILE INFO can now read SPSS/PC+ system files and SPSS portable
88 * FREQUENCIES: A bug was fixed where an assertion failure occured
89 when an empty dataset was presented.
91 * The GRAPH command is now available. Initially it supports
92 scatterplots and histograms.
94 * The RND operator in expressions now supports additional operands
95 for rounding to values other than integers and to indicate a level
96 of rounding fuzz. The default rounding fuzz may now be controlled
97 and displayed with SET FUZZBITS and SHOW FUZZBITS, respectively.
99 Changes from 0.8.3 to 0.8.4:
101 * Formatting of SYSFILE INFO output was made easier to read.
103 * Bug fixes, including the following notable ones:
105 - FREQUENCIES works properly for string variables. (This bug was
106 introduced in 0.8.2.)
108 - CROSSTABS now correctly computes all of the measures that it
109 offers. Some measures have been removed because they were not
112 - The NPAR TESTS calculation of significance for the RUNS
113 subcommand has been corrected.
115 - Planned comparisons in ONEWAY ANOVA now correctly handle negative
118 - The COUNT command now correctly treats missing values as
121 - Conformance fixes to Open Document output format.
123 Changes from 0.8.2 to 0.8.3:
125 * Independent T-Tests displayed the standard error of the difference
126 and the confidence interval for the unequal variances case, where
127 the equal variances case should have been. This has been fixed.
129 * REGRESSION now recognises /STATISTICS=CI(x) which causes confidence
130 intervals for the coefficients to be printed.
132 * When DESCRIPTIVES calculates Z scores, it now omits cases filtered
133 by the current FILTER settings.
135 * PSPPIRE graphical user interface improvements:
137 - Dialog boxes with source variable lists can now choose the sort
138 order; right click and select from the popup menu.
140 - File|Open now allows an encoding to be selected for opening
143 - File|Display Data File Information|External File... now allows an
144 encoding to be selected.
146 - A problem with the Means dialog has been resolved (bug #41433).
148 - Several problems related to the input of spreadsheets have been
149 fixed (bug #41657, #41620
151 * System file related improvements:
153 - With ENCODING="DETECT", SYSFILE INFO can now help the user to
154 pick an encoding for reading a system file that does not identify
157 - SYSFILE INFO now accepts an ENCODING subcommand to specify the
158 character encoding of string data in the system file.
160 - Variable labels over 255 bytes long are now accepted without
161 truncation (bug #41863).
163 - System files that contain duplicate variable names may now be
164 read successfully (bug #41475).
166 Changes from 0.8.1 to 0.8.2:
168 * Charts are now rendered with colours from the Tango palette instead
169 of fully saturated primaries.
171 * Support for new system file variants:
173 - PSPP can now read and write ZCOMPRESSED system files, which
174 compress data much more effectively than older "compressed"
175 files. (The older format is still supported.)
177 - PSPP can now decrypt encrypted system files, using the new
178 pspp-convert utility. The encrypted system file format is
179 unacceptably insecure, so to discourage its use PSPP and PSPPIRE
180 do not directly read or write this format.
182 * Missing values for long string variables are now read from and
183 written to system files in an SPSS-compatible fashion.
185 (Earlier versions of PSPP that supported missing values for long
186 string variables wrote them to system files in an SPSS-incompatible
187 way. To fix the problem, read the system file with this version of
188 PSPP and then save a new copy of it.)
190 * pspp-convert, a new standalone utility for converting SPSS system
191 and portable files to other formats, is now included. The initial
192 version supports comma-separated value files as output format.
193 pspp-convert can also decrypt encrypted system files.
197 - zlib is now a required dependency. (Previously it was optional.)
199 Changes from 0.8.0 to 0.8.1:
205 * Changes to existing commands:
207 - CROSSTABS: The requirement that one expected count must be less than five
208 before Fishers Exact Test will be reported has been removed.
210 * PSPPIRE graphical user interface improvements:
212 - A new set of icons has been contributed.
214 - Syntax windows now parse syntax in "auto" mode, which in practice
215 should mean that both "batch" and "interactive" syntax now works,
216 instead of just "interactive" syntax.
218 - The variable pane of data windows now include a Role column.
222 - System files written by IBM SPSS 21 are now read without warnings.
224 - System files written by "VOXCO INTERVIEWER 4.3" are now read
227 - PSPPIRE should now more gracefully handle syntax files that contain
230 Changes from 0.6.2 to 0.8.0:
236 - DATAFILE ATTRIBUTES
243 - LOGISTIC REGRESSION
247 - PRESERVE and RESTORE
251 - SAVE TRANSLATE to CSV and tab-delimited files
253 - VARIABLE ATTRIBUTES
255 * Changes to existing commands:
257 - AUTORECODE has a new GROUP subcommand.
259 - CROSSTABS has been re-implemented to fix numerous bugs.
261 - EXAMINE: /MISSING=LISTWISE is now the default.
263 - DO REPEAT command has been reimplemented. Now, when DO REPEAT
264 contains an INCLUDE or INSERT command, substitutions are not
265 applied to the included file.
267 - FILE HANDLE has a new ENDS subcommand to select CR or CRLF new-lines.
269 - HOST has been updated to use more modern syntax.
271 - Most commands that work with data files now support a new
274 - MISSING VALUES can now assign missing values to long string
277 - ONEWAY: the POSTHOC subcommand is now implemented.
279 - The following new subcommands to NPAR TESTS have been implemented:
280 COCHRAN, FRIEDMAN, JONCKHEERE-TERPSTRA, KENDALL, KRUSKAL-WALLIS, MANN-WHITNEY,
281 MCNEMAR, SIGN, WILCOXON, and RUNS
283 - SET and SHOW no longer have ENDCMD, NULLINE, PROMPT, CPROMPT, and
284 DPROMPT subcommands. The defaults are now fixed values.
286 - SHOW now has a JOURNAL subcommand, to show the location of the
289 - VALUE LABELS can now assign value labels to long string
292 * Other language changes:
294 - The new DATASET commands replace the "scratch file" PSPP
295 extension, which is no longer supported.
297 - Strings may now include arbitrary Unicode code points specified
298 in hexadecimal, using the syntax U'hhhh'. For example, Unicode
299 code point U+1D11E, the musical G clef character, may be
300 expressed as U'1D11E'.
302 See the "Tokens" section in the PSPP manual for more information.
304 - In previous versions of PSPP, in a string expressed in
305 hexadecimal with X'hh' syntax, the hexadecimal digits expressed
306 bytes in the locale encoding. In this version of PSPP, X'hh'
307 syntax always expresses bytes in UTF-8 encoding.
309 See the "Tokens" section in the PSPP manual for more information.
311 * PSPPIRE graphical user interface improvements:
313 - Added support for non-ASCII characters in strings, labels and
316 - A "Split Window" function is available, which makes it easier to
317 see different parts of a large data file.
319 - Data files can now be opened by specifing their name as the first
320 argument. This means that on a properly configured desktop, double
321 clicking on an icon will open the file.
323 - Foreign formats, such as Gnumeric, OpenDocument and CSV can be imported
324 via using an "intelligent" application assistant dialog.
328 - The new "cairo" output driver supports output in PostScript, PDF,
329 and SVG formats. Its functionality is a superset of that of the
330 "postscript" driver, which has been removed. You must have Cairo
331 and Pango installed to build the "cairo" driver.
333 - Charts are now produced with Cairo and Pango, instead of libplot.
334 Without them, the new graphing features will not work. If you do
335 not have Cairo and Pango installed, you must run `configure' with
338 - The plain text output driver now properly supports multibyte UTF-8
339 characters, including double-width characters and combining
342 - Output to OpenDocument format is now supported.
344 - The HTML output is much improved.
346 * The "pspp" program has a new option --batch (or -b) that selects
347 "batch" syntax mode. In previous versions of PSPP this syntax mode
348 was the default. Now a new "auto" syntax mode is the default. In
349 "auto" mode, PSPP interprets most syntax files correctly regardless
350 of their intended syntax mode.
352 See the "Syntax Variants" section in the PSPP manual for more
355 * The "pspp" program has a new option --syntax-encoding that
356 specifies the encoding for syntax files listed on the command line,
357 as well as the default encoding for syntax files included with
358 INCLUDE or INSERT. The default is to accept the system locale
359 encoding, UTF-8, UTF-16, or UTF-32, automatically detecting which
360 one the system file uses.
362 See the documentation for the INSERT command in the PSPP manual for
365 * Text data files that PRINT and WRITE creates now use the system
366 native line ends by default (CRLF on Windows, LF only elsewhere).
367 Use the new ENDS subcommand on FILE HANDLE to override the default.
369 * A new Perl module allows Perl programs to read and write PSPP
372 * A tutorial chapter has been added to the user manual.
374 Changes from 0.6.1 to 0.6.2:
378 - Dutch, thanks to Harry Thijssen.
380 - Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Michel Boaventura.
382 Thanks for translations are also due to the coordinators at
383 translationproject.org.
385 * Statistical bug fixes:
387 - REGRESSION: Report correct standard error of the estimate (bug
390 - T-TEST: Report correct significance of paired sample T-test in
391 the common case (bug #26936) and corner cases. Thanks to Mike
392 Griffiths and Matej Cepl for reporting these bugs.
394 * Build fixes and changes:
396 - Fix build with GTK+ 2.17.4 and later.
398 - Make running "make" after running "configure" with different
399 settings reliably rebuild version.c.
401 - Cygwin and MinGW build fixes.
403 - Fixes for building with recent gnulib.
405 - The Makefile now honors two new variables, PSPP_LDFLAGS and
406 PSPPIRE_LDFLAGS, that affect linking of the PSPP and PSPPIRE
407 binaries, respectively. This makes building easier for some
410 - Fixes for "configure --enable-relocatable" (bug #25508).
412 * Data file bug fixes and changes:
414 - Fix reading text data files that contain a mix of white space
415 and commas. Now "a ,b" is treated as two fields containing "a"
416 and "b"; previously it was treated as three, with an empty field
419 - Fix writing corrupted .sav files on Windows.
421 - Fix writing variable labels longer than 252 bytes to save files.
422 Thanks to Robert Westlund for reporting this bug.
424 - Fix writing corrupted .por files (bug #26034).
426 - Fix reading .por files whose initial lines are not padded out
427 with spaces as expected.
429 - PSPP will no longer issue warnings about some .sav file records
430 or values that it does not understand. These warnings were
431 harmless, but needlessly alarmed some users.
433 - Fix crash reading empty string fields from PostgreSQL databases.
435 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
437 - Users may now control precision of output statistics. Instead
438 of hard coding the width and decimals of output numbers, respect
439 the default format in most instances. Counts are now normally
440 displayed with the format of the weight variable, if any.
442 - Fix crash when an INSERT command specifies the name of a file
443 that does not exist (bug #24569).
445 - Fix crash when CROSSTABS specifies a long-string variable (bugs
448 - Fix crash drawing pie charts with many segments.
450 - Fix crash when NUMERIC specifies an invalid format.
452 * PSPPIRE bug fixes and changes:
454 - On Windows, write the output file to the user's home directory
455 instead of the current directory, to better match user
458 - Some data editor fixes.
462 - Fix typo in BINOMIAL section of user manual (bug #25892).
464 Changes from 0.6.0 to 0.6.1:
466 * Statistical bug fixes:
468 - Report correct standardized regression coefficients in linear
469 regression output (bug #23567).
471 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
473 - Avoid crash with pie charts (bug #24014).
475 - Don't append % to count totals (bug #24003).
477 - Don't crash on bad input (bug #24031).
479 - Don't crash if "end data." is not left aligned (bug #24115).
481 - Change default workspace value to 64 MB, to avoid unnecessary
482 disk accesses on modern machines.
486 - Add ".sav" or ".por" suffix to filename when saving with Save_As
489 - Make it possible to reopen the output window on Windows (bug
492 - A POSIX regular expression library is now included and used
493 automatically if the host does not have one or has one that is
496 * Build fixes and changes:
498 - Work around bug in GSL that prevented build with recent GCC
499 versions without manually adding -fgnu89-inline to CFLAGS.
501 - Also warn about missing prerequisites as we encounter them (bug
504 - Distribute necessary files to allow users working from the
505 distributed tarball to configure with --enable-gui-tools.
507 - Append $(EXEEXT_FOR_BUILD) to output file name when building
508 q2c, fixing build problems on Windows.
510 - GSL 1.8 or later is now required.
512 - Build errors with --enable-relocatable were fixed.
514 * The German translations were removed, since native German speakers
515 found them too poor to be useful.
517 Changes from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0:
519 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
520 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
522 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE. This
523 interface allows you to enter data and variable definitions
524 interactively. Commands may be executed in syntax form, or by
525 using the interactive dialog boxes available from the dropdown
528 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
531 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
535 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
536 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
537 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
539 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
540 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
541 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
543 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
544 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
546 Statistical procedure changes:
548 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
549 via least-squares estimation.
551 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
552 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
554 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
557 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
558 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
560 User interface changes:
562 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
563 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
565 * PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
568 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
569 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
570 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
573 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
574 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
575 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
576 executed as if `+' had been specified.
578 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
579 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
580 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
582 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
583 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
584 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
585 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
590 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
591 manual for a full description of the available options.
593 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
594 "make install" will do this for you.
596 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
597 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
599 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
600 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
601 Previously, by default output was written only to file
602 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
603 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
608 - This driver now supports charts in output. Charts are written
609 as separate files that the main output file refers to. By
610 default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
611 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
613 - Configurations are provided that use VT100 (and xterm)
614 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
615 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
619 - The default paper size is now determined using the PAPERSIZE
620 environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale category on
621 systems that support it. If these are not set, the default is
622 now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the default,
623 set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
625 - Font metrics are now read from AFM files, instead of
626 Groff-format metrics files. PostScript fonts can now be
629 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
630 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install
631 AFM files for the standard PostScript fonts, including the
632 ones that the PostScript driver uses by default.
634 - Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
635 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
636 longer needed, or supported.
638 - The PostScript prologue is no longer obtained from the
639 "ps-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file is
640 no longer needed, or supported.
644 - The HTML prologue is no longer obtained from the
645 "html-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file
646 is no longer needed, or supported.
648 Command language changes:
650 * The following commands are new:
652 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files and
653 text data files. It will be extended later to read other
654 types of foreign data.
656 - CD, to change the current directory.
658 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
660 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
663 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
665 - CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
667 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
670 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
672 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
674 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
676 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
678 * PSPP now supports very long string variables (over 255 bytes
681 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
683 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
684 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
685 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
687 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
688 re-implemented in a later release:
690 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
696 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
697 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
698 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
700 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
701 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
703 "Scratch files", a new PSPP extension:
705 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
706 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
707 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
708 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
711 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
712 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
713 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
715 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
716 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
717 reassigned to new files.
719 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
720 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
721 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
722 documentation on those particular commands.
726 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
727 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
728 format of these files.
730 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
731 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
732 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
733 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
736 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
737 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
738 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
739 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
740 native floating point format.
742 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
743 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
744 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
746 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
747 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
749 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
750 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
751 subcommands has been added.
753 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
754 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
755 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
758 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
759 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
761 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
762 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
763 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
767 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
768 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
771 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
772 have been extensively revised and improved.
774 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
777 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
779 Changes in build dependencies:
781 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
784 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
785 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
786 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
788 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
790 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
792 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
794 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
802 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
803 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
806 * T-TEST (re-written).
808 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
809 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
812 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
813 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
814 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
815 third-party software.
817 * SET EPOCH implemented.
819 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
822 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
824 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
825 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
826 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
828 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
829 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
831 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
832 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
834 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
835 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
836 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
839 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
840 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
843 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
846 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
849 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
850 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
851 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
853 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
855 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
857 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
860 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
861 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
864 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
865 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
867 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
871 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
874 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
875 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
877 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
878 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
880 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
883 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
886 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
889 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
890 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
891 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
893 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
895 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
897 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
901 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
903 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
907 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
908 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
910 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
912 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
914 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
918 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
920 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
922 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
923 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
925 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
926 didn't like being the last command in a file.
928 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
929 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
930 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
931 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
933 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
934 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
935 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
937 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
938 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
939 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
941 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
942 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
943 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
946 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
947 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
950 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
951 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
953 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
954 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
955 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
957 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
958 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
959 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
961 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
962 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
963 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
966 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
967 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
970 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
971 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
973 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
976 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
977 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
978 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
980 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
981 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
985 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
986 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
988 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
989 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
990 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
992 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
994 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
998 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
1000 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
1002 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
1003 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
1005 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
1007 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
1008 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1010 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
1011 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
1013 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
1014 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
1017 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
1018 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
1023 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
1024 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
1025 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
1027 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
1031 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
1033 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
1034 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
1037 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
1038 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
1039 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
1041 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
1043 Procedures now implemented:
1044 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
1046 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
1049 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
1050 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
1061 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
1062 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
1065 New command-line features:
1066 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
1067 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
1068 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
1069 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
1070 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
1072 Operator LAG is now implemented.
1074 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
1076 Table output manager completely rewritten.
1078 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
1079 reinstall your `devices' file.
1081 New output driver for HTML.
1083 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
1085 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
1087 Added Texinfo documentation for:
1088 * PSPP system file format
1089 * PSPP portable file format
1090 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
1093 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
1094 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
1096 Changes for version 0.1.0:
1098 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
1099 versions, please see ONEWS.
1101 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1102 Copyright information:
1104 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
1105 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
1106 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
1107 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1109 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
1110 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
1111 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
1115 version-control: never