1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Time-stamp: <2009-05-24 22:25:04 blp>
3 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000, 2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end for copying conditions.
6 Please send PSPP bug reports to bug-gnu-pspp@gnu.org.
8 Changes from 0.7.1 to 0.7.2:
10 * Updated Perl module interface.
12 * Value labels for long string variables are now supported.
14 * Missing values for long string variables are now supported.
16 Changes from 0.7.0 to 0.7.1:
18 * Added a perl module to facilitate reading and writing of pspp system
19 files from perl programs.
21 Changes from 0.6.1 to 0.7.0:
23 * Custom variable and data file attributes are now supported.
24 Commands VARIABLE ATTRIBUTE and DATAFILE ATTRIBUTE have been added
25 for setting and clear attributes. Support for attributes has also
26 been added to commands that read and write system files, such as
27 SAVE and GET, as well as to the DISPLAY command.
29 Changes from 0.6.0 to 0.6.1:
31 * Statistical bug fixes:
33 - Report correct standardized regression coefficients in linear
34 regression output (bug #23567).
36 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
38 - Avoid crash with pie charts (bug #24014).
40 - Don't append % to count totals (bug #24003).
42 - Don't crash on bad input (bug #24031).
44 - Don't crash if "end data." is not left aligned (bug #24115).
46 - Change default workspace value to 64 MB, to avoid unnecessary
47 disk accesses on modern machines.
51 - Add ".sav" or ".por" suffix to filename when saving with Save_As
54 - Make it possible to reopen the output window on Windows (bug
57 - A POSIX regular expression library is now included and used
58 automatically if the host does not have one or has one that is
61 * Build fixes and changes:
63 - Work around bug in GSL that prevented build with recent GCC
64 versions without manually adding -fgnu89-inline to CFLAGS.
66 - Also warn about missing prerequisites as we encounter them (bug
69 - Distribute necessary files to allow users working from the
70 distributed tarball to configure with --enable-gui-tools.
72 - Append $(EXEEXT_FOR_BUILD) to output file name when building
73 q2c, fixing build problems on Windows.
75 - GSL 1.8 or later is now required.
77 - Build errors with --enable-relocatable were fixed.
79 * The German translations were removed, since native German speakers
80 found them too poor to be useful.
82 Changes from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0:
84 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
85 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
87 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE. This
88 interface allows you to enter data and variable definitions
89 interactively. Commands may be executed in syntax form, or by
90 using the interactive dialog boxes available from the dropdown
93 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
96 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
100 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
101 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
102 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
104 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
105 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
106 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
108 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
109 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
111 Statistical procedure changes:
113 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
114 via least-squares estimation.
116 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
117 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
119 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
122 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
123 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
125 User interface changes:
127 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
128 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
130 * PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
133 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
134 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
135 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
138 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
139 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
140 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
141 executed as if `+' had been specified.
143 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
144 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
145 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
147 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
148 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
149 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
150 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
155 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
156 manual for a full description of the available options.
158 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
159 "make install" will do this for you.
161 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
162 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
164 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
165 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
166 Previously, by default output was written only to file
167 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
168 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
173 - This driver now supports charts in output. Charts are written
174 as separate files that the main output file refers to. By
175 default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
176 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
178 - Configurations are provided that use VT100 (and xterm)
179 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
180 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
184 - The default paper size is now determined using the PAPERSIZE
185 environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale category on
186 systems that support it. If these are not set, the default is
187 now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the default,
188 set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
190 - Font metrics are now read from AFM files, instead of
191 Groff-format metrics files. PostScript fonts can now be
194 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
195 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install
196 AFM files for the standard PostScript fonts, including the
197 ones that the PostScript driver uses by default.
199 - Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
200 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
201 longer needed, or supported.
203 - The PostScript prologue is no longer obtained from the
204 "ps-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file is
205 no longer needed, or supported.
209 - The HTML prologue is no longer obtained from the
210 "html-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file
211 is no longer needed, or supported.
213 Command language changes:
215 * The following commands are new:
217 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files and
218 text data files. It will be extended later to read other
219 types of foreign data.
221 - CD, to change the current directory.
223 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
225 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
228 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
230 - CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
232 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
235 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
237 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
239 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
241 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
243 * PSPP now supports very long string variables (over 255 bytes
246 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
248 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
249 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
250 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
252 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
253 re-implemented in a later release:
255 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
261 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
262 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
263 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
265 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
266 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
268 "Scratch files", a new PSPP extension:
270 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
271 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
272 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
273 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
276 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
277 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
278 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
280 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
281 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
282 reassigned to new files.
284 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
285 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
286 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
287 documentation on those particular commands.
291 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
292 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
293 format of these files.
295 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
296 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
297 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
298 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
301 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
302 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
303 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
304 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
305 native floating point format.
307 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
308 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
309 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
311 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
312 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
314 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
315 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
316 subcommands has been added.
318 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
319 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
320 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
323 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
324 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
326 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
327 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
328 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
332 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
333 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
336 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
337 have been extensively revised and improved.
339 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
342 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
344 Changes in build dependencies:
346 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
349 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
350 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
351 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
353 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
355 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
357 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
359 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
367 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
368 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
371 * T-TEST (re-written).
373 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
374 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
377 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
378 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
379 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
380 third-party software.
382 * SET EPOCH implemented.
384 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
387 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
389 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
390 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
391 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
393 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
394 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
396 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
397 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
399 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
400 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
401 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
404 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
405 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
408 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
411 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
414 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
415 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
416 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
418 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
420 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
422 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
425 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
426 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
429 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
430 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
432 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
436 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
439 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
440 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
442 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
443 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
445 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
448 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
451 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
454 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
455 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
456 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
458 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
460 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
462 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
466 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
468 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
472 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
473 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
475 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
477 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
479 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
483 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
485 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
487 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
488 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
490 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
491 didn't like being the last command in a file.
493 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
494 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
495 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
496 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
498 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
499 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
500 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
502 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
503 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
504 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
506 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
507 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
508 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
511 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
512 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
515 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
516 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
518 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
519 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
520 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
522 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
523 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
524 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
526 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
527 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
528 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
531 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
532 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
535 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
536 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
538 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
541 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
542 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
543 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
545 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
546 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
550 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
551 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
553 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
554 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
555 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
557 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
559 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
563 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
565 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
567 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
568 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
570 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
572 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
573 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
575 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
576 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
578 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
579 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
582 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
583 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
588 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
589 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
590 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
592 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
596 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
598 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
599 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
602 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
603 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
604 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
606 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
608 Procedures now implemented:
609 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
611 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
614 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
615 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
626 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
627 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
630 New command-line features:
631 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
632 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
633 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
634 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
635 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
637 Operator LAG is now implemented.
639 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
641 Table output manager completely rewritten.
643 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
644 reinstall your `devices' file.
646 New output driver for HTML.
648 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
650 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
652 Added Texinfo documentation for:
653 * PSPP system file format
654 * PSPP portable file format
655 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
658 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
659 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
661 Changes for version 0.1.0:
663 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
664 versions, please see ONEWS.
666 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
667 Copyright information:
669 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
671 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
672 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
673 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
674 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
676 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
677 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
678 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
682 version-control: never