1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996-2000, 2008-2016, 2017 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 1.0.1 to 1.1.0:
9 ** The code implementing the sheet rendering has been removed. Instead we
10 use a third party library: spread-sheet-widget.
12 ** The "NOMISSING" keyword when generating syntax for piecharts in the frequencies
13 command was omitted. This has been corrected.
15 Changes from 1.0.0 to 1.0.1:
17 * Bug fixes, including fixes for CVE-2017-12958, CVE-2017-12959,
18 CVE-2017-12960, and CVE-2017-12961.
20 Changes from 0.11.0 to 1.0.0:
22 * Translation updates.
24 Changes from 0.10.2 to 0.11.0:
26 * The REGRESSION command now has a /ORIGIN subcommand to perform
27 regression through the origin.
29 * The FACTOR command can now analyse matrix files prepared with MATRIX DATA.
31 * The FACTOR command can now print the anti-image matrices.
33 * The MATRIX DATA command has been added.
35 * Some inappropriate properties in selection dialogs have been corrected.
37 * A bug which could cause the HTML driver to go into a tight loop
40 * An error in the FREQUENCIES procedure, where the word "Mean" was
41 printed when "Variance" was appropriate has been fixed.
43 * The ncurses library is no longer required or used.
45 * A bug where the Mann-Whitney test would give misleading results
46 if run on multiple variables and MISSING=ANALAYSIS was specified
49 * Gtk+3.14.5 or later must now be used when building.
51 * Graphical user interface changes:
53 ** There is a new menu: Edit|Options
55 ** The Non Parametric Statistics Menu has a new item: "K Independent Samples".
57 ** Dialog boxes can now be canceled using the <Escape> key.
59 * The AUTORECODE command now accepts an optional / before INTO.
61 * The short form of the VECTOR command can now create string variables.
63 * Bug fixes, including fixes for CVE-2017-10791 and CVE-2017-10792.
65 Changes from 0.10.1 to 0.10.2:
67 * CROSSTABS implements a new COUNT subcommand to round case or cell
70 * Help will be opened as HTML in default browser if yelp
73 * When plotting scatterplots with only one dataset (the simple case)
74 the colour used for the dataset is now black. The previous default
75 from the Tango palette was too faint to see easily.
77 * The varible info dialog could previously only paste a single variable.
78 Now it can paste multiple variables.
80 * Bug fixes, including the following:
82 - T-test with independent samples GUI crashed with string
83 type variable as group variable.
85 - The variable info dialog showed the previous selected variable
86 superimposed with the currently selected one.
88 - The GLM command did not properly deal with missing values. This
91 Changes from 0.10.0 to 0.10.1:
93 * Bug fixes, including the following:
95 - A bug where certain dialog boxes could not be properly populated
98 - Various commands have been hardened against errors when called
101 * Translation updates. Thanks to our translators!
103 Changes from 0.8.5 to 0.10.0:
105 * The QUICK CLUSTER command has a /PRINT subcommand which shows
106 the initial cluster centres and the final cluster membership of
107 each case. The clustering algorithm has also been updated, so
108 as to produce better separated clusters.
110 * A Russian localisation has been contributed.
112 * The GRAPH command now has a /BAR subcommand to draw barcharts.
114 * If the DECIMAL character is set to COMMA then the ',' character
115 will not be treated as a separator by DATA LIST.
117 * The graphical user interface (psppire) has been changed as follows:
119 - It now uses Gtk+ version 3 instead of version 2. Accordingly, it has a
120 somewhat different look and feel.
122 - There is now a Graphs menu to access the GRAPH command.
124 - The status of dialog box widgets are now preserved between calls
125 to the same dialog box for the same dataset.
127 - The dialog box for the Logistic Regression command will now
128 infer that string variables or any varible with a "measure"
129 of Nominal or Ordinal are to be treated as categorical variables
130 and will generate syntax accordingly.
132 * The pspp-convert utility can now decrypt encrypted syntax files.
133 The encrypted syntax file format is unacceptably insecure, so to
134 discourage its use PSPP and PSPPIRE do not directly read or write
141 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
143 - REPLACE, for search-and-replace of one string with another.
145 - STRUNC, to truncate a string and trim trailing spaces.
147 - MEDIAN, to compute the median of its arguments.
149 - The TRUNC function in expressions now supports additional arguments
150 for truncating to values other than integers and to indicate a level
151 of rounding fuzz. The default rounding fuzz may now be controlled
152 and displayed with SET FUZZBITS and SHOW FUZZBITS, respectively.
154 * Bug fixes, including the following notable ones:
156 - The correlation coefficient in the paired samples t-test
157 procedure is now correctly calculated when presented with
160 - The ESCAPE subcommand has been removed from GET DATA /TYPE=TXT.
161 For compatibility, the behavior that ESCAPE enabled is now the
162 default and only supported behavior.
164 - Rendering of the variable and data sheets in right-to-left locales
167 - The Mann-Whitney test, when run on a dataset containing values
168 of the group variable, other than those defining the test groups,
169 would incorrectly calculate the ranks. This has been corrected.
171 * The IMPORTCASES subcommand on GET DATA is now ignored, for
174 Changes from 0.8.4 to 0.8.5:
176 * The FREQUENCIES and CROSSTABS commands can now generate barcharts.
178 * The FACTOR command can now perform PROMAX rotations.
180 * SPSS/PC+ system files are now supported on GET and other commands
181 that read SPSS system files. The pspp-convert program can now read
182 SPSS/PC+ system files. Writing the obsolete SPSS/PC+ system file
183 format is not supported.
185 * SYSFILE INFO can now read SPSS/PC+ system files and SPSS portable
188 * FREQUENCIES: A bug was fixed where an assertion failure occurred
189 when an empty dataset was presented.
191 * The GRAPH command is now available. Initially it supports
192 scatterplots and histograms.
194 * The RND operator in expressions now supports additional operands
195 for rounding to values other than integers and to indicate a level
196 of rounding fuzz. The default rounding fuzz may now be controlled
197 and displayed with SET FUZZBITS and SHOW FUZZBITS, respectively.
199 Changes from 0.8.3 to 0.8.4:
201 * Formatting of SYSFILE INFO output was made easier to read.
203 * Bug fixes, including the following notable ones:
205 - FREQUENCIES works properly for string variables. (This bug was
206 introduced in 0.8.2.)
208 - CROSSTABS now correctly computes all of the measures that it
209 offers. Some measures have been removed because they were not
212 - The NPAR TESTS calculation of significance for the RUNS
213 subcommand has been corrected.
215 - Planned comparisons in ONEWAY ANOVA now correctly handle negative
218 - The COUNT command now correctly treats missing values as
221 - Conformance fixes to Open Document output format.
223 Changes from 0.8.2 to 0.8.3:
225 * Independent T-Tests displayed the standard error of the difference
226 and the confidence interval for the unequal variances case, where
227 the equal variances case should have been. This has been fixed.
229 * REGRESSION now recognises /STATISTICS=CI(x) which causes confidence
230 intervals for the coefficients to be printed.
232 * When DESCRIPTIVES calculates Z scores, it now omits cases filtered
233 by the current FILTER settings.
235 * PSPPIRE graphical user interface improvements:
237 - Dialog boxes with source variable lists can now choose the sort
238 order; right click and select from the popup menu.
240 - File|Open now allows an encoding to be selected for opening
243 - File|Display Data File Information|External File... now allows an
244 encoding to be selected.
246 - A problem with the Means dialog has been resolved (bug #41433).
248 - Several problems related to the input of spreadsheets have been
249 fixed (bug #41657, #41620
251 * System file related improvements:
253 - With ENCODING="DETECT", SYSFILE INFO can now help the user to
254 pick an encoding for reading a system file that does not identify
257 - SYSFILE INFO now accepts an ENCODING subcommand to specify the
258 character encoding of string data in the system file.
260 - Variable labels over 255 bytes long are now accepted without
261 truncation (bug #41863).
263 - System files that contain duplicate variable names may now be
264 read successfully (bug #41475).
266 Changes from 0.8.1 to 0.8.2:
268 * Charts are now rendered with colours from the Tango palette instead
269 of fully saturated primaries.
271 * Support for new system file variants:
273 - PSPP can now read and write ZCOMPRESSED system files, which
274 compress data much more effectively than older "compressed"
275 files. (The older format is still supported.)
277 - PSPP can now decrypt encrypted system files, using the new
278 pspp-convert utility. The encrypted system file format is
279 unacceptably insecure, so to discourage its use PSPP and PSPPIRE
280 do not directly read or write this format.
282 * Missing values for long string variables are now read from and
283 written to system files in an SPSS-compatible fashion.
285 (Earlier versions of PSPP that supported missing values for long
286 string variables wrote them to system files in an SPSS-incompatible
287 way. To fix the problem, read the system file with this version of
288 PSPP and then save a new copy of it.)
290 * pspp-convert, a new standalone utility for converting SPSS system
291 and portable files to other formats, is now included. The initial
292 version supports comma-separated value files as output format.
293 pspp-convert can also decrypt encrypted system files.
297 - zlib is now a required dependency. (Previously it was optional.)
299 Changes from 0.8.0 to 0.8.1:
305 * Changes to existing commands:
307 - CROSSTABS: The requirement that one expected count must be less than five
308 before Fishers Exact Test will be reported has been removed.
310 * PSPPIRE graphical user interface improvements:
312 - A new set of icons has been contributed.
314 - Syntax windows now parse syntax in "auto" mode, which in practice
315 should mean that both "batch" and "interactive" syntax now works,
316 instead of just "interactive" syntax.
318 - The variable pane of data windows now include a Role column.
322 - System files written by IBM SPSS 21 are now read without warnings.
324 - System files written by "VOXCO INTERVIEWER 4.3" are now read
327 - PSPPIRE should now more gracefully handle syntax files that contain
330 Changes from 0.6.2 to 0.8.0:
336 - DATAFILE ATTRIBUTES
343 - LOGISTIC REGRESSION
347 - PRESERVE and RESTORE
351 - SAVE TRANSLATE to CSV and tab-delimited files
353 - VARIABLE ATTRIBUTES
355 * Changes to existing commands:
357 - AUTORECODE has a new GROUP subcommand.
359 - CROSSTABS has been re-implemented to fix numerous bugs.
361 - EXAMINE: /MISSING=LISTWISE is now the default.
363 - DO REPEAT command has been reimplemented. Now, when DO REPEAT
364 contains an INCLUDE or INSERT command, substitutions are not
365 applied to the included file.
367 - FILE HANDLE has a new ENDS subcommand to select CR or CRLF new-lines.
369 - HOST has been updated to use more modern syntax.
371 - Most commands that work with data files now support a new
374 - MISSING VALUES can now assign missing values to long string
377 - ONEWAY: the POSTHOC subcommand is now implemented.
379 - The following new subcommands to NPAR TESTS have been implemented:
380 COCHRAN, FRIEDMAN, JONCKHEERE-TERPSTRA, KENDALL, KRUSKAL-WALLIS, MANN-WHITNEY,
381 MCNEMAR, SIGN, WILCOXON, and RUNS
383 - SET and SHOW no longer have ENDCMD, NULLINE, PROMPT, CPROMPT, and
384 DPROMPT subcommands. The defaults are now fixed values.
386 - SHOW now has a JOURNAL subcommand, to show the location of the
389 - VALUE LABELS can now assign value labels to long string
392 * Other language changes:
394 - The new DATASET commands replace the "scratch file" PSPP
395 extension, which is no longer supported.
397 - Strings may now include arbitrary Unicode code points specified
398 in hexadecimal, using the syntax U'hhhh'. For example, Unicode
399 code point U+1D11E, the musical G clef character, may be
400 expressed as U'1D11E'.
402 See the "Tokens" section in the PSPP manual for more information.
404 - In previous versions of PSPP, in a string expressed in
405 hexadecimal with X'hh' syntax, the hexadecimal digits expressed
406 bytes in the locale encoding. In this version of PSPP, X'hh'
407 syntax always expresses bytes in UTF-8 encoding.
409 See the "Tokens" section in the PSPP manual for more information.
411 * PSPPIRE graphical user interface improvements:
413 - Added support for non-ASCII characters in strings, labels and
416 - A "Split Window" function is available, which makes it easier to
417 see different parts of a large data file.
419 - Data files can now be opened by specifing their name as the first
420 argument. This means that on a properly configured desktop, double
421 clicking on an icon will open the file.
423 - Foreign formats, such as Gnumeric, OpenDocument and CSV can be imported
424 via using an "intelligent" application assistant dialog.
428 - The new "cairo" output driver supports output in PostScript, PDF,
429 and SVG formats. Its functionality is a superset of that of the
430 "postscript" driver, which has been removed. You must have Cairo
431 and Pango installed to build the "cairo" driver.
433 - Charts are now produced with Cairo and Pango, instead of libplot.
434 Without them, the new graphing features will not work. If you do
435 not have Cairo and Pango installed, you must run `configure' with
438 - The plain text output driver now properly supports multibyte UTF-8
439 characters, including double-width characters and combining
442 - Output to OpenDocument format is now supported.
444 - The HTML output is much improved.
446 * The "pspp" program has a new option --batch (or -b) that selects
447 "batch" syntax mode. In previous versions of PSPP this syntax mode
448 was the default. Now a new "auto" syntax mode is the default. In
449 "auto" mode, PSPP interprets most syntax files correctly regardless
450 of their intended syntax mode.
452 See the "Syntax Variants" section in the PSPP manual for more
455 * The "pspp" program has a new option --syntax-encoding that
456 specifies the encoding for syntax files listed on the command line,
457 as well as the default encoding for syntax files included with
458 INCLUDE or INSERT. The default is to accept the system locale
459 encoding, UTF-8, UTF-16, or UTF-32, automatically detecting which
460 one the system file uses.
462 See the documentation for the INSERT command in the PSPP manual for
465 * Text data files that PRINT and WRITE creates now use the system
466 native line ends by default (CRLF on Windows, LF only elsewhere).
467 Use the new ENDS subcommand on FILE HANDLE to override the default.
469 * A new Perl module allows Perl programs to read and write PSPP
472 * A tutorial chapter has been added to the user manual.
474 Changes from 0.6.1 to 0.6.2:
478 - Dutch, thanks to Harry Thijssen.
480 - Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Michel Boaventura.
482 Thanks for translations are also due to the coordinators at
483 translationproject.org.
485 * Statistical bug fixes:
487 - REGRESSION: Report correct standard error of the estimate (bug
490 - T-TEST: Report correct significance of paired sample T-test in
491 the common case (bug #26936) and corner cases. Thanks to Mike
492 Griffiths and Matej Cepl for reporting these bugs.
494 * Build fixes and changes:
496 - Fix build with GTK+ 2.17.4 and later.
498 - Make running "make" after running "configure" with different
499 settings reliably rebuild version.c.
501 - Cygwin and MinGW build fixes.
503 - Fixes for building with recent gnulib.
505 - The Makefile now honors two new variables, PSPP_LDFLAGS and
506 PSPPIRE_LDFLAGS, that affect linking of the PSPP and PSPPIRE
507 binaries, respectively. This makes building easier for some
510 - Fixes for "configure --enable-relocatable" (bug #25508).
512 * Data file bug fixes and changes:
514 - Fix reading text data files that contain a mix of white space
515 and commas. Now "a ,b" is treated as two fields containing "a"
516 and "b"; previously it was treated as three, with an empty field
519 - Fix writing corrupted .sav files on Windows.
521 - Fix writing variable labels longer than 252 bytes to save files.
522 Thanks to Robert Westlund for reporting this bug.
524 - Fix writing corrupted .por files (bug #26034).
526 - Fix reading .por files whose initial lines are not padded out
527 with spaces as expected.
529 - PSPP will no longer issue warnings about some .sav file records
530 or values that it does not understand. These warnings were
531 harmless, but needlessly alarmed some users.
533 - Fix crash reading empty string fields from PostgreSQL databases.
535 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
537 - Users may now control precision of output statistics. Instead
538 of hard coding the width and decimals of output numbers, respect
539 the default format in most instances. Counts are now normally
540 displayed with the format of the weight variable, if any.
542 - Fix crash when an INSERT command specifies the name of a file
543 that does not exist (bug #24569).
545 - Fix crash when CROSSTABS specifies a long-string variable (bugs
548 - Fix crash drawing pie charts with many segments.
550 - Fix crash when NUMERIC specifies an invalid format.
552 * PSPPIRE bug fixes and changes:
554 - On Windows, write the output file to the user's home directory
555 instead of the current directory, to better match user
558 - Some data editor fixes.
562 - Fix typo in BINOMIAL section of user manual (bug #25892).
564 Changes from 0.6.0 to 0.6.1:
566 * Statistical bug fixes:
568 - Report correct standardized regression coefficients in linear
569 regression output (bug #23567).
571 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
573 - Avoid crash with pie charts (bug #24014).
575 - Don't append % to count totals (bug #24003).
577 - Don't crash on bad input (bug #24031).
579 - Don't crash if "end data." is not left aligned (bug #24115).
581 - Change default workspace value to 64 MB, to avoid unnecessary
582 disk accesses on modern machines.
586 - Add ".sav" or ".por" suffix to filename when saving with Save_As
589 - Make it possible to reopen the output window on Windows (bug
592 - A POSIX regular expression library is now included and used
593 automatically if the host does not have one or has one that is
596 * Build fixes and changes:
598 - Work around bug in GSL that prevented build with recent GCC
599 versions without manually adding -fgnu89-inline to CFLAGS.
601 - Also warn about missing prerequisites as we encounter them (bug
604 - Distribute necessary files to allow users working from the
605 distributed tarball to configure with --enable-gui-tools.
607 - Append $(EXEEXT_FOR_BUILD) to output file name when building
608 q2c, fixing build problems on Windows.
610 - GSL 1.8 or later is now required.
612 - Build errors with --enable-relocatable were fixed.
614 * The German translations were removed, since native German speakers
615 found them too poor to be useful.
617 Changes from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0:
619 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
620 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
622 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE. This
623 interface allows you to enter data and variable definitions
624 interactively. Commands may be executed in syntax form, or by
625 using the interactive dialog boxes available from the dropdown
628 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
631 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
635 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
636 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
637 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
639 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
640 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
641 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
643 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
644 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
646 Statistical procedure changes:
648 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
649 via least-squares estimation.
651 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
652 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
654 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
657 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
658 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
660 User interface changes:
662 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
663 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
665 * PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
668 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
669 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
670 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
673 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
674 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
675 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
676 executed as if `+' had been specified.
678 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
679 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
680 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
682 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
683 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
684 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
685 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
690 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
691 manual for a full description of the available options.
693 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
694 "make install" will do this for you.
696 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
697 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
699 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
700 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
701 Previously, by default output was written only to file
702 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
703 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
708 - This driver now supports charts in output. Charts are written
709 as separate files that the main output file refers to. By
710 default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
711 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
713 - Configurations are provided that use VT100 (and xterm)
714 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
715 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
719 - The default paper size is now determined using the PAPERSIZE
720 environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale category on
721 systems that support it. If these are not set, the default is
722 now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the default,
723 set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
725 - Font metrics are now read from AFM files, instead of
726 Groff-format metrics files. PostScript fonts can now be
729 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
730 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install
731 AFM files for the standard PostScript fonts, including the
732 ones that the PostScript driver uses by default.
734 - Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
735 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
736 longer needed, or supported.
738 - The PostScript prologue is no longer obtained from the
739 "ps-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file is
740 no longer needed, or supported.
744 - The HTML prologue is no longer obtained from the
745 "html-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file
746 is no longer needed, or supported.
748 Command language changes:
750 * The following commands are new:
752 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files and
753 text data files. It will be extended later to read other
754 types of foreign data.
756 - CD, to change the current directory.
758 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
760 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
763 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
765 - CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
767 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
770 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
772 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
774 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
776 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
778 * PSPP now supports very long string variables (over 255 bytes
781 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
783 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
784 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
785 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
787 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
788 re-implemented in a later release:
790 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
796 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
797 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
798 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
800 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
801 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
803 "Scratch files", a new PSPP extension:
805 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
806 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
807 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
808 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
811 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
812 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
813 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
815 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
816 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
817 reassigned to new files.
819 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
820 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
821 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
822 documentation on those particular commands.
826 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
827 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
828 format of these files.
830 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
831 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
832 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
833 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
836 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
837 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
838 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
839 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
840 native floating point format.
842 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
843 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
844 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
846 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
847 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
849 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
850 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
851 subcommands has been added.
853 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
854 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
855 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
858 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
859 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
861 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
862 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
863 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
867 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
868 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
871 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
872 have been extensively revised and improved.
874 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
877 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
879 Changes in build dependencies:
881 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
884 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
885 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
886 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
888 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
890 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
892 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
894 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
902 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
903 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
906 * T-TEST (re-written).
908 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
909 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
912 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
913 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
914 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
915 third-party software.
917 * SET EPOCH implemented.
919 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
922 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
924 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
925 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
926 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
928 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
929 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
931 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
932 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
934 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
935 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
936 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
939 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
940 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
943 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
946 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
949 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
950 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
951 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
953 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
955 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
957 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
960 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
961 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
964 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
965 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
967 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
971 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
974 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
975 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
977 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
978 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
980 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
983 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
986 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
989 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
990 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
991 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
993 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
995 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
997 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
1001 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
1003 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
1007 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
1008 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
1010 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
1012 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
1014 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
1018 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
1020 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
1022 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
1023 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
1025 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
1026 didn't like being the last command in a file.
1028 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
1029 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
1030 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
1031 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1033 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
1034 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1035 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1037 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
1038 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
1039 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
1041 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
1042 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
1043 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1046 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
1047 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1050 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1051 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1053 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
1054 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1055 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1057 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
1058 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
1059 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
1061 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
1062 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
1063 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1066 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
1067 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1070 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1071 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1073 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
1076 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
1077 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1078 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1080 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
1081 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
1085 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
1086 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
1088 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
1089 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
1090 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
1092 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
1094 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
1098 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
1100 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
1102 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
1103 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
1105 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
1107 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
1108 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1110 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
1111 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
1113 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
1114 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
1117 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
1118 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
1123 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
1124 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
1125 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
1127 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
1131 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
1133 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
1134 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
1137 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
1138 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
1139 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
1141 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
1143 Procedures now implemented:
1144 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
1146 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
1149 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
1150 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
1161 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
1162 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
1165 New command-line features:
1166 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
1167 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
1168 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
1169 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
1170 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
1172 Operator LAG is now implemented.
1174 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
1176 Table output manager completely rewritten.
1178 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
1179 reinstall your `devices' file.
1181 New output driver for HTML.
1183 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
1185 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
1187 Added Texinfo documentation for:
1188 * PSPP system file format
1189 * PSPP portable file format
1190 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
1193 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
1194 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
1196 Changes for version 0.1.0:
1198 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
1199 versions, please see ONEWS.
1201 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1202 Copyright information:
1204 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
1205 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
1206 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
1207 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1209 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
1210 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
1211 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
1215 version-control: never