1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Time-stamp: <2007-03-01 17:11:36 blp>
3 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end for copying conditions.
6 Please send PSPP bug reports to bug-gnu-pspp@gnu.org.
10 Changes in build dependencies:
12 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
13 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
14 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
16 The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed. You
17 may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following TEMPORARY, which
20 Changes since 0.4.0 to 0.4.1:
22 Added support for very long string variables > 255 bytes.
26 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
27 manual for a full description of the available options.
29 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
30 "make install" will do this for you.
32 * The PostScript driver now obtains font metrics from AFM files,
33 instead of Groff-format metrics files. It can now embed
34 PostScript fonts in its output.
36 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
37 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install AFM
38 files for the standard PostScript files, including the ones that
39 the PostScript driver uses by default.
41 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
43 * CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
47 * XEXPORT (a PSPP extension).
51 A new PSPP extension called "scratch files" has been implemented.
52 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
53 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
54 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
55 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
58 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
59 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
60 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
62 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
63 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
64 reassigned to new files.
66 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
67 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
68 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
69 documentation on those particular commands.
71 PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
74 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
76 Changes in build dependencies:
78 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
81 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
82 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
83 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
85 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
87 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
89 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
91 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
99 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
100 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
103 * T-TEST (re-written).
105 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
106 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
109 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
110 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
111 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
112 third-party software.
114 * SET EPOCH implemented.
116 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
119 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
121 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
122 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
123 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
125 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
126 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
128 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
129 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
131 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
132 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
133 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
136 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
137 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
140 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
143 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
146 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
147 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
148 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
150 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
152 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
154 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
157 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
158 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
161 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
162 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
164 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
168 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
171 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
172 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
174 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
175 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
177 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
180 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
183 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
186 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
187 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
188 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
190 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
192 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
194 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
198 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
200 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
204 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
205 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
207 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
209 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
211 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
215 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
217 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
219 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
220 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
222 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
223 didn't like being the last command in a file.
225 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
226 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
227 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
228 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
230 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
231 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
232 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
234 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
235 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
236 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
238 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
239 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
240 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
243 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
244 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
247 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
248 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
250 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
251 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
252 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
254 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
255 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
256 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
258 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
259 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
260 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
263 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
264 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
267 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
268 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
270 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
273 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
274 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
275 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
277 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
278 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
282 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
283 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
285 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
286 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
287 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
289 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
291 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
295 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
297 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
299 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
300 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
302 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
304 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
305 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
307 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
308 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
310 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
311 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
314 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
315 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
320 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
321 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
322 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
324 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
328 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
330 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
331 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
334 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
335 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
336 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
338 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
340 Procedures now implemented:
341 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
343 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
346 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
347 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
358 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
359 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
362 New command-line features:
363 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
364 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
365 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
366 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
367 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
369 Operator LAG is now implemented.
371 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
373 Table output manager completely rewritten.
375 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
376 reinstall your `devices' file.
378 New output driver for HTML.
380 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
382 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
384 Added Texinfo documentation for:
385 * PSPP system file format
386 * PSPP portable file format
387 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
390 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
391 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
393 Changes for version 0.1.0:
395 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
396 versions, please see ONEWS.
398 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
399 Copyright information:
401 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
403 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
404 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
405 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
406 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
408 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
409 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
410 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
414 version-control: never