1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Time-stamp: <2009-12-05 20:44:30 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 0.7.2 to 0.7.3:
10 * Charts are now produced with Cairo and Pango, instead of libplot.
11 Without them, the new graphing features will not work. If you do
12 not have Cairo and Pango installed, you must run `configure' with
15 * The new "cairo" output driver supports output in PostScript, PDF,
16 and SVG formats. Its functionality is a superset of that of the
17 "postscript" driver, which has been removed. You must have Cairo
18 and Pango installed to build the "cairo" driver.
20 Changes from 0.7.1 to 0.7.2:
22 * Updated Perl module interface.
24 * Value labels for long string variables are now supported.
26 * Missing values for long string variables are now supported.
28 Changes from 0.7.0 to 0.7.1:
30 * Added a perl module to facilitate reading and writing of pspp system
31 files from perl programs.
33 Changes from 0.6.2-pre6 to 0.7.0:
35 * Custom variable and data file attributes are now supported.
36 Commands VARIABLE ATTRIBUTE and DATAFILE ATTRIBUTE have been added
37 for setting and clear attributes. Support for attributes has also
38 been added to commands that read and write system files, such as
39 SAVE and GET, as well as to the DISPLAY command.
41 * Numererous improvements to the Graphical User Interface have
42 made. Notable improvements include:
44 - Non-Ascii characters in strings, labels and variable names are
47 - A "Split Window" function is available, which makes it easier to
48 see different parts of a large data file.
50 - Data files can now be opened by specifing their name as the first
51 argument. This means that on a properly configured desktop, double
52 clicking on an icon will open the file.
55 * New statistical procedures:
60 NPAR TESTS now supports the WILCOXON and SIGN subcommands.
62 The CROSSTABS command has been completely re-implemented to fix numerous bugs.
64 * Three new commands to combine data files have been added: MATCH FILES,
67 * A tutorial chapter has been added to the user manual.
69 Changes from 0.6.1 to 0.6.2
73 - Dutch, thanks to Harry Thijssen.
75 - Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Michel Boaventura.
77 Thanks for translations are also due to the coordinators at
78 translationproject.org.
80 * Statistical bug fixes:
82 - REGRESSION: Report correct standard error of the estimate (bug
85 - T-TEST: Report correct significance of paired sample T-test in
86 the common case (bug #26936) and corner cases. Thanks to Mike
87 Griffiths and Matej Cepl for reporting these bugs.
89 * Build fixes and changes:
91 - Fix build with GTK+ 2.17.4 and later.
93 - Make running "make" after running "configure" with different
94 settings reliably rebuild version.c.
96 - Cygwin and MinGW build fixes.
98 - Fixes for building with recent gnulib.
100 - The Makefile now honors two new variables, PSPP_LDFLAGS and
101 PSPPIRE_LDFLAGS, that affect linking of the PSPP and PSPPIRE
102 binaries, respectively. This makes building easier for some
105 - Fixes for "configure --enable-relocatable" (bug #25508).
107 * Data file bug fixes and changes:
109 - Fix reading text data files that contain a mix of white space
110 and commas. Now "a ,b" is treated as two fields containing "a"
111 and "b"; previously it was treated as three, with an empty field
114 - Fix writing corrupted .sav files on Windows.
116 - Fix writing variable labels longer than 252 bytes to save files.
117 Thanks to Robert Westlund for reporting this bug.
119 - Fix writing corrupted .por files (bug #26034).
121 - Fix reading .por files whose initial lines are not padded out
122 with spaces as expected.
124 - PSPP will no longer issue warnings about some .sav file records
125 or values that it does not understand. These warnings were
126 harmless, but needlessly alarmed some users.
128 - Fix crash reading empty string fields from PostgreSQL databases.
130 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
132 - Users may now control precision of output statistics. Instead
133 of hard coding the width and decimals of output numbers, respect
134 the default format in most instances. Counts are now normally
135 displayed with the format of the weight variable, if any.
137 - Fix crash when an INSERT command specifies the name of a file
138 that does not exist (bug #24569).
140 - Fix crash when CROSSTABS specifies a long-string variable (bugs
143 - Fix crash drawing pie charts with many segments.
145 - Fix crash when NUMERIC specifies an invalid format.
147 * PSPPIRE bug fixes and changes:
149 - On Windows, write the output file to the user's home directory
150 instead of the current directory, to better match user
153 - Some data editor fixes.
157 - Fix typo in BINOMIAL section of user manual (bug #25892).
159 Changes from 0.6.0 to 0.6.1:
161 * Statistical bug fixes:
163 - Report correct standardized regression coefficients in linear
164 regression output (bug #23567).
166 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
168 - Avoid crash with pie charts (bug #24014).
170 - Don't append % to count totals (bug #24003).
172 - Don't crash on bad input (bug #24031).
174 - Don't crash if "end data." is not left aligned (bug #24115).
176 - Change default workspace value to 64 MB, to avoid unnecessary
177 disk accesses on modern machines.
181 - Add ".sav" or ".por" suffix to filename when saving with Save_As
184 - Make it possible to reopen the output window on Windows (bug
187 - A POSIX regular expression library is now included and used
188 automatically if the host does not have one or has one that is
191 * Build fixes and changes:
193 - Work around bug in GSL that prevented build with recent GCC
194 versions without manually adding -fgnu89-inline to CFLAGS.
196 - Also warn about missing prerequisites as we encounter them (bug
199 - Distribute necessary files to allow users working from the
200 distributed tarball to configure with --enable-gui-tools.
202 - Append $(EXEEXT_FOR_BUILD) to output file name when building
203 q2c, fixing build problems on Windows.
205 - GSL 1.8 or later is now required.
207 - Build errors with --enable-relocatable were fixed.
209 * The German translations were removed, since native German speakers
210 found them too poor to be useful.
212 Changes from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0:
214 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
215 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
217 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE. This
218 interface allows you to enter data and variable definitions
219 interactively. Commands may be executed in syntax form, or by
220 using the interactive dialog boxes available from the dropdown
223 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
226 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
230 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
231 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
232 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
234 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
235 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
236 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
238 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
239 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
241 Statistical procedure changes:
243 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
244 via least-squares estimation.
246 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
247 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
249 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
252 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
253 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
255 User interface changes:
257 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
258 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
260 * PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
263 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
264 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
265 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
268 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
269 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
270 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
271 executed as if `+' had been specified.
273 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
274 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
275 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
277 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
278 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
279 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
280 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
285 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
286 manual for a full description of the available options.
288 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
289 "make install" will do this for you.
291 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
292 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
294 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
295 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
296 Previously, by default output was written only to file
297 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
298 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
303 - This driver now supports charts in output. Charts are written
304 as separate files that the main output file refers to. By
305 default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
306 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
308 - Configurations are provided that use VT100 (and xterm)
309 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
310 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
314 - The default paper size is now determined using the PAPERSIZE
315 environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale category on
316 systems that support it. If these are not set, the default is
317 now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the default,
318 set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
320 - Font metrics are now read from AFM files, instead of
321 Groff-format metrics files. PostScript fonts can now be
324 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
325 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install
326 AFM files for the standard PostScript fonts, including the
327 ones that the PostScript driver uses by default.
329 - Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
330 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
331 longer needed, or supported.
333 - The PostScript prologue is no longer obtained from the
334 "ps-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file is
335 no longer needed, or supported.
339 - The HTML prologue is no longer obtained from the
340 "html-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file
341 is no longer needed, or supported.
343 Command language changes:
345 * The following commands are new:
347 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files and
348 text data files. It will be extended later to read other
349 types of foreign data.
351 - CD, to change the current directory.
353 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
355 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
358 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
360 - CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
362 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
365 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
367 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
369 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
371 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
373 * PSPP now supports very long string variables (over 255 bytes
376 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
378 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
379 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
380 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
382 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
383 re-implemented in a later release:
385 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
391 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
392 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
393 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
395 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
396 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
398 "Scratch files", a new PSPP extension:
400 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
401 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
402 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
403 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
406 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
407 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
408 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
410 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
411 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
412 reassigned to new files.
414 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
415 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
416 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
417 documentation on those particular commands.
421 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
422 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
423 format of these files.
425 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
426 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
427 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
428 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
431 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
432 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
433 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
434 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
435 native floating point format.
437 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
438 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
439 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
441 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
442 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
444 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
445 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
446 subcommands has been added.
448 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
449 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
450 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
453 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
454 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
456 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
457 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
458 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
462 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
463 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
466 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
467 have been extensively revised and improved.
469 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
472 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
474 Changes in build dependencies:
476 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
479 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
480 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
481 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
483 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
485 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
487 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
489 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
497 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
498 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
501 * T-TEST (re-written).
503 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
504 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
507 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
508 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
509 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
510 third-party software.
512 * SET EPOCH implemented.
514 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
517 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
519 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
520 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
521 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
523 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
524 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
526 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
527 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
529 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
530 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
531 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
534 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
535 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
538 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
541 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
544 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
545 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
546 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
548 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
550 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
552 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
555 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
556 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
559 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
560 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
562 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
566 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
569 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
570 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
572 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
573 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
575 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
578 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
581 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
584 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
585 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
586 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
588 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
590 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
592 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
596 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
598 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
602 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
603 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
605 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
607 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
609 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
613 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
615 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
617 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
618 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
620 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
621 didn't like being the last command in a file.
623 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
624 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
625 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
626 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
628 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
629 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
630 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
632 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
633 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
634 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
636 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
637 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
638 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
641 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
642 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
645 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
646 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
648 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
649 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
650 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
652 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
653 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
654 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
656 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
657 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
658 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
661 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
662 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
665 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
666 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
668 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
671 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
672 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
673 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
675 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
676 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
680 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
681 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
683 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
684 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
685 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
687 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
689 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
693 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
695 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
697 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
698 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
700 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
702 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
703 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
705 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
706 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
708 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
709 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
712 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
713 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
718 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
719 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
720 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
722 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
726 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
728 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
729 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
732 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
733 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
734 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
736 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
738 Procedures now implemented:
739 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
741 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
744 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
745 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
756 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
757 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
760 New command-line features:
761 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
762 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
763 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
764 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
765 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
767 Operator LAG is now implemented.
769 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
771 Table output manager completely rewritten.
773 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
774 reinstall your `devices' file.
776 New output driver for HTML.
778 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
780 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
782 Added Texinfo documentation for:
783 * PSPP system file format
784 * PSPP portable file format
785 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
788 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
789 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
791 Changes for version 0.1.0:
793 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
794 versions, please see ONEWS.
796 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
797 Copyright information:
799 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
800 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
801 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
802 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
804 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
805 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
806 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
810 version-control: never