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 0.10.2 to 0.10.4:
9 * Some inappropriate properties in selection dialogs have been corrected.
11 * The graphical user interface has a new menu: Edit|Options
13 * A bug which could cause the HTML driver to go into a tight loop
16 * An error in the FREQUENCIES procedure, where the word "Mean" was
17 printed when "Variance" was appropriate has been fixed.
19 * The ncurses library is no longer required or used.
21 * A bug where the Mann-Whitney test would give misleading results
22 if run on multiple variables and MISSING=ANALAYSIS was specified
25 * Gtk+3.14.5 or later must now be used when building.
27 * The AUTORECODE command now accepts an optional / before INTO.
29 * The short form of the VECTOR command can now create string variables.
31 Changes from 0.10.1 to 0.10.2:
33 * CROSSTABS implements a new COUNT subcommand to round case or cell
36 * Help will be opened as HTML in default browser if yelp
39 * When plotting scatterplots with only one dataset (the simple case)
40 the colour used for the dataset is now black. The previous default
41 from the Tango palette was too faint to see easily.
43 * The varible info dialog could previously only paste a single variable.
44 Now it can paste multiple variables.
46 * Bug fixes, including the following:
48 - T-test with independent samples GUI crashed with string
49 type variable as group variable.
51 - The variable info dialog showed the previous selected variable
52 superimposed with the currently selected one.
54 - The GLM command did not properly deal with missing values. This
57 Changes from 0.10.0 to 0.10.1:
59 * Bug fixes, including the following:
61 - A bug where certain dialog boxes could not be properly populated
64 - Various commands have been hardened against errors when called
67 * Translation updates. Thanks to our translators!
69 Changes from 0.8.5 to 0.10.0:
71 * The QUICK CLUSTER command has a /PRINT subcommand which shows
72 the initial cluster centres and the final cluster membership of
73 each case. The clustering algorithm has also been updated, so
74 as to produce better separated clusters.
76 * A Russian localisation has been contributed.
78 * The GRAPH command now has a /BAR subcommand to draw barcharts.
80 * If the DECIMAL character is set to COMMA then the ',' character
81 will not be treated as a separator by DATA LIST.
83 * The graphical user interface (psppire) has been changed as follows:
85 - It now uses Gtk+ version 3 instead of version 2. Accordingly, it has a
86 somewhat different look and feel.
88 - There is now a Graphs menu to access the GRAPH command.
90 - The status of dialog box widgets are now preserved between calls
91 to the same dialog box for the same dataset.
93 - The dialog box for the Logistic Regression command will now
94 infer that string variables or any varible with a "measure"
95 of Nominal or Ordinal are to be treated as categorical variables
96 and will generate syntax accordingly.
98 * The pspp-convert utility can now decrypt encrypted syntax files.
99 The encrypted syntax file format is unacceptably insecure, so to
100 discourage its use PSPP and PSPPIRE do not directly read or write
107 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
109 - REPLACE, for search-and-replace of one string with another.
111 - STRUNC, to truncate a string and trim trailing spaces.
113 - MEDIAN, to compute the median of its arguments.
115 - The TRUNC function in expressions now supports additional arguments
116 for truncating to values other than integers and to indicate a level
117 of rounding fuzz. The default rounding fuzz may now be controlled
118 and displayed with SET FUZZBITS and SHOW FUZZBITS, respectively.
120 * Bug fixes, including the following notable ones:
122 - The correlation coefficient in the paired samples t-test
123 procedure is now correctly calculated when presented with
126 - The ESCAPE subcommand has been removed from GET DATA /TYPE=TXT.
127 For compatibility, the behavior that ESCAPE enabled is now the
128 default and only supported behavior.
130 - Rendering of the variable and data sheets in right-to-left locales
133 - The Mann-Whitney test, when run on a dataset containing values
134 of the group variable, other than those defining the test groups,
135 would incorrectly calculate the ranks. This has been corrected.
137 * The IMPORTCASES subcommand on GET DATA is now ignored, for
140 Changes from 0.8.4 to 0.8.5:
142 * The FREQUENCIES and CROSSTABS commands can now generate barcharts.
144 * The FACTOR command can now perform PROMAX rotations.
146 * SPSS/PC+ system files are now supported on GET and other commands
147 that read SPSS system files. The pspp-convert program can now read
148 SPSS/PC+ system files. Writing the obsolete SPSS/PC+ system file
149 format is not supported.
151 * SYSFILE INFO can now read SPSS/PC+ system files and SPSS portable
154 * FREQUENCIES: A bug was fixed where an assertion failure occured
155 when an empty dataset was presented.
157 * The GRAPH command is now available. Initially it supports
158 scatterplots and histograms.
160 * The RND operator in expressions now supports additional operands
161 for rounding to values other than integers and to indicate a level
162 of rounding fuzz. The default rounding fuzz may now be controlled
163 and displayed with SET FUZZBITS and SHOW FUZZBITS, respectively.
165 Changes from 0.8.3 to 0.8.4:
167 * Formatting of SYSFILE INFO output was made easier to read.
169 * Bug fixes, including the following notable ones:
171 - FREQUENCIES works properly for string variables. (This bug was
172 introduced in 0.8.2.)
174 - CROSSTABS now correctly computes all of the measures that it
175 offers. Some measures have been removed because they were not
178 - The NPAR TESTS calculation of significance for the RUNS
179 subcommand has been corrected.
181 - Planned comparisons in ONEWAY ANOVA now correctly handle negative
184 - The COUNT command now correctly treats missing values as
187 - Conformance fixes to Open Document output format.
189 Changes from 0.8.2 to 0.8.3:
191 * Independent T-Tests displayed the standard error of the difference
192 and the confidence interval for the unequal variances case, where
193 the equal variances case should have been. This has been fixed.
195 * REGRESSION now recognises /STATISTICS=CI(x) which causes confidence
196 intervals for the coefficients to be printed.
198 * When DESCRIPTIVES calculates Z scores, it now omits cases filtered
199 by the current FILTER settings.
201 * PSPPIRE graphical user interface improvements:
203 - Dialog boxes with source variable lists can now choose the sort
204 order; right click and select from the popup menu.
206 - File|Open now allows an encoding to be selected for opening
209 - File|Display Data File Information|External File... now allows an
210 encoding to be selected.
212 - A problem with the Means dialog has been resolved (bug #41433).
214 - Several problems related to the input of spreadsheets have been
215 fixed (bug #41657, #41620
217 * System file related improvements:
219 - With ENCODING="DETECT", SYSFILE INFO can now help the user to
220 pick an encoding for reading a system file that does not identify
223 - SYSFILE INFO now accepts an ENCODING subcommand to specify the
224 character encoding of string data in the system file.
226 - Variable labels over 255 bytes long are now accepted without
227 truncation (bug #41863).
229 - System files that contain duplicate variable names may now be
230 read successfully (bug #41475).
232 Changes from 0.8.1 to 0.8.2:
234 * Charts are now rendered with colours from the Tango palette instead
235 of fully saturated primaries.
237 * Support for new system file variants:
239 - PSPP can now read and write ZCOMPRESSED system files, which
240 compress data much more effectively than older "compressed"
241 files. (The older format is still supported.)
243 - PSPP can now decrypt encrypted system files, using the new
244 pspp-convert utility. The encrypted system file format is
245 unacceptably insecure, so to discourage its use PSPP and PSPPIRE
246 do not directly read or write this format.
248 * Missing values for long string variables are now read from and
249 written to system files in an SPSS-compatible fashion.
251 (Earlier versions of PSPP that supported missing values for long
252 string variables wrote them to system files in an SPSS-incompatible
253 way. To fix the problem, read the system file with this version of
254 PSPP and then save a new copy of it.)
256 * pspp-convert, a new standalone utility for converting SPSS system
257 and portable files to other formats, is now included. The initial
258 version supports comma-separated value files as output format.
259 pspp-convert can also decrypt encrypted system files.
263 - zlib is now a required dependency. (Previously it was optional.)
265 Changes from 0.8.0 to 0.8.1:
271 * Changes to existing commands:
273 - CROSSTABS: The requirement that one expected count must be less than five
274 before Fishers Exact Test will be reported has been removed.
276 * PSPPIRE graphical user interface improvements:
278 - A new set of icons has been contributed.
280 - Syntax windows now parse syntax in "auto" mode, which in practice
281 should mean that both "batch" and "interactive" syntax now works,
282 instead of just "interactive" syntax.
284 - The variable pane of data windows now include a Role column.
288 - System files written by IBM SPSS 21 are now read without warnings.
290 - System files written by "VOXCO INTERVIEWER 4.3" are now read
293 - PSPPIRE should now more gracefully handle syntax files that contain
296 Changes from 0.6.2 to 0.8.0:
302 - DATAFILE ATTRIBUTES
309 - LOGISTIC REGRESSION
313 - PRESERVE and RESTORE
317 - SAVE TRANSLATE to CSV and tab-delimited files
319 - VARIABLE ATTRIBUTES
321 * Changes to existing commands:
323 - AUTORECODE has a new GROUP subcommand.
325 - CROSSTABS has been re-implemented to fix numerous bugs.
327 - EXAMINE: /MISSING=LISTWISE is now the default.
329 - DO REPEAT command has been reimplemented. Now, when DO REPEAT
330 contains an INCLUDE or INSERT command, substitutions are not
331 applied to the included file.
333 - FILE HANDLE has a new ENDS subcommand to select CR or CRLF new-lines.
335 - HOST has been updated to use more modern syntax.
337 - Most commands that work with data files now support a new
340 - MISSING VALUES can now assign missing values to long string
343 - ONEWAY: the POSTHOC subcommand is now implemented.
345 - The following new subcommands to NPAR TESTS have been implemented:
346 COCHRAN, FRIEDMAN, JONCKHEERE-TERPSTRA, KENDALL, KRUSKAL-WALLIS, MANN-WHITNEY,
347 MCNEMAR, SIGN, WILCOXON, and RUNS
349 - SET and SHOW no longer have ENDCMD, NULLINE, PROMPT, CPROMPT, and
350 DPROMPT subcommands. The defaults are now fixed values.
352 - SHOW now has a JOURNAL subcommand, to show the location of the
355 - VALUE LABELS can now assign value labels to long string
358 * Other language changes:
360 - The new DATASET commands replace the "scratch file" PSPP
361 extension, which is no longer supported.
363 - Strings may now include arbitrary Unicode code points specified
364 in hexadecimal, using the syntax U'hhhh'. For example, Unicode
365 code point U+1D11E, the musical G clef character, may be
366 expressed as U'1D11E'.
368 See the "Tokens" section in the PSPP manual for more information.
370 - In previous versions of PSPP, in a string expressed in
371 hexadecimal with X'hh' syntax, the hexadecimal digits expressed
372 bytes in the locale encoding. In this version of PSPP, X'hh'
373 syntax always expresses bytes in UTF-8 encoding.
375 See the "Tokens" section in the PSPP manual for more information.
377 * PSPPIRE graphical user interface improvements:
379 - Added support for non-ASCII characters in strings, labels and
382 - A "Split Window" function is available, which makes it easier to
383 see different parts of a large data file.
385 - Data files can now be opened by specifing their name as the first
386 argument. This means that on a properly configured desktop, double
387 clicking on an icon will open the file.
389 - Foreign formats, such as Gnumeric, OpenDocument and CSV can be imported
390 via using an "intelligent" application assistant dialog.
394 - The new "cairo" output driver supports output in PostScript, PDF,
395 and SVG formats. Its functionality is a superset of that of the
396 "postscript" driver, which has been removed. You must have Cairo
397 and Pango installed to build the "cairo" driver.
399 - Charts are now produced with Cairo and Pango, instead of libplot.
400 Without them, the new graphing features will not work. If you do
401 not have Cairo and Pango installed, you must run `configure' with
404 - The plain text output driver now properly supports multibyte UTF-8
405 characters, including double-width characters and combining
408 - Output to OpenDocument format is now supported.
410 - The HTML output is much improved.
412 * The "pspp" program has a new option --batch (or -b) that selects
413 "batch" syntax mode. In previous versions of PSPP this syntax mode
414 was the default. Now a new "auto" syntax mode is the default. In
415 "auto" mode, PSPP interprets most syntax files correctly regardless
416 of their intended syntax mode.
418 See the "Syntax Variants" section in the PSPP manual for more
421 * The "pspp" program has a new option --syntax-encoding that
422 specifies the encoding for syntax files listed on the command line,
423 as well as the default encoding for syntax files included with
424 INCLUDE or INSERT. The default is to accept the system locale
425 encoding, UTF-8, UTF-16, or UTF-32, automatically detecting which
426 one the system file uses.
428 See the documentation for the INSERT command in the PSPP manual for
431 * Text data files that PRINT and WRITE creates now use the system
432 native line ends by default (CRLF on Windows, LF only elsewhere).
433 Use the new ENDS subcommand on FILE HANDLE to override the default.
435 * A new Perl module allows Perl programs to read and write PSPP
438 * A tutorial chapter has been added to the user manual.
440 Changes from 0.6.1 to 0.6.2:
444 - Dutch, thanks to Harry Thijssen.
446 - Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Michel Boaventura.
448 Thanks for translations are also due to the coordinators at
449 translationproject.org.
451 * Statistical bug fixes:
453 - REGRESSION: Report correct standard error of the estimate (bug
456 - T-TEST: Report correct significance of paired sample T-test in
457 the common case (bug #26936) and corner cases. Thanks to Mike
458 Griffiths and Matej Cepl for reporting these bugs.
460 * Build fixes and changes:
462 - Fix build with GTK+ 2.17.4 and later.
464 - Make running "make" after running "configure" with different
465 settings reliably rebuild version.c.
467 - Cygwin and MinGW build fixes.
469 - Fixes for building with recent gnulib.
471 - The Makefile now honors two new variables, PSPP_LDFLAGS and
472 PSPPIRE_LDFLAGS, that affect linking of the PSPP and PSPPIRE
473 binaries, respectively. This makes building easier for some
476 - Fixes for "configure --enable-relocatable" (bug #25508).
478 * Data file bug fixes and changes:
480 - Fix reading text data files that contain a mix of white space
481 and commas. Now "a ,b" is treated as two fields containing "a"
482 and "b"; previously it was treated as three, with an empty field
485 - Fix writing corrupted .sav files on Windows.
487 - Fix writing variable labels longer than 252 bytes to save files.
488 Thanks to Robert Westlund for reporting this bug.
490 - Fix writing corrupted .por files (bug #26034).
492 - Fix reading .por files whose initial lines are not padded out
493 with spaces as expected.
495 - PSPP will no longer issue warnings about some .sav file records
496 or values that it does not understand. These warnings were
497 harmless, but needlessly alarmed some users.
499 - Fix crash reading empty string fields from PostgreSQL databases.
501 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
503 - Users may now control precision of output statistics. Instead
504 of hard coding the width and decimals of output numbers, respect
505 the default format in most instances. Counts are now normally
506 displayed with the format of the weight variable, if any.
508 - Fix crash when an INSERT command specifies the name of a file
509 that does not exist (bug #24569).
511 - Fix crash when CROSSTABS specifies a long-string variable (bugs
514 - Fix crash drawing pie charts with many segments.
516 - Fix crash when NUMERIC specifies an invalid format.
518 * PSPPIRE bug fixes and changes:
520 - On Windows, write the output file to the user's home directory
521 instead of the current directory, to better match user
524 - Some data editor fixes.
528 - Fix typo in BINOMIAL section of user manual (bug #25892).
530 Changes from 0.6.0 to 0.6.1:
532 * Statistical bug fixes:
534 - Report correct standardized regression coefficients in linear
535 regression output (bug #23567).
537 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
539 - Avoid crash with pie charts (bug #24014).
541 - Don't append % to count totals (bug #24003).
543 - Don't crash on bad input (bug #24031).
545 - Don't crash if "end data." is not left aligned (bug #24115).
547 - Change default workspace value to 64 MB, to avoid unnecessary
548 disk accesses on modern machines.
552 - Add ".sav" or ".por" suffix to filename when saving with Save_As
555 - Make it possible to reopen the output window on Windows (bug
558 - A POSIX regular expression library is now included and used
559 automatically if the host does not have one or has one that is
562 * Build fixes and changes:
564 - Work around bug in GSL that prevented build with recent GCC
565 versions without manually adding -fgnu89-inline to CFLAGS.
567 - Also warn about missing prerequisites as we encounter them (bug
570 - Distribute necessary files to allow users working from the
571 distributed tarball to configure with --enable-gui-tools.
573 - Append $(EXEEXT_FOR_BUILD) to output file name when building
574 q2c, fixing build problems on Windows.
576 - GSL 1.8 or later is now required.
578 - Build errors with --enable-relocatable were fixed.
580 * The German translations were removed, since native German speakers
581 found them too poor to be useful.
583 Changes from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0:
585 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
586 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
588 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE. This
589 interface allows you to enter data and variable definitions
590 interactively. Commands may be executed in syntax form, or by
591 using the interactive dialog boxes available from the dropdown
594 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
597 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
601 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
602 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
603 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
605 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
606 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
607 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
609 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
610 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
612 Statistical procedure changes:
614 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
615 via least-squares estimation.
617 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
618 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
620 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
623 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
624 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
626 User interface changes:
628 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
629 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
631 * PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
634 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
635 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
636 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
639 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
640 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
641 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
642 executed as if `+' had been specified.
644 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
645 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
646 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
648 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
649 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
650 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
651 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
656 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
657 manual for a full description of the available options.
659 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
660 "make install" will do this for you.
662 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
663 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
665 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
666 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
667 Previously, by default output was written only to file
668 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
669 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
674 - This driver now supports charts in output. Charts are written
675 as separate files that the main output file refers to. By
676 default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
677 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
679 - Configurations are provided that use VT100 (and xterm)
680 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
681 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
685 - The default paper size is now determined using the PAPERSIZE
686 environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale category on
687 systems that support it. If these are not set, the default is
688 now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the default,
689 set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
691 - Font metrics are now read from AFM files, instead of
692 Groff-format metrics files. PostScript fonts can now be
695 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
696 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install
697 AFM files for the standard PostScript fonts, including the
698 ones that the PostScript driver uses by default.
700 - Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
701 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
702 longer needed, or supported.
704 - The PostScript prologue is no longer obtained from the
705 "ps-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file is
706 no longer needed, or supported.
710 - The HTML prologue is no longer obtained from the
711 "html-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file
712 is no longer needed, or supported.
714 Command language changes:
716 * The following commands are new:
718 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files and
719 text data files. It will be extended later to read other
720 types of foreign data.
722 - CD, to change the current directory.
724 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
726 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
729 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
731 - CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
733 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
736 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
738 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
740 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
742 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
744 * PSPP now supports very long string variables (over 255 bytes
747 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
749 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
750 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
751 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
753 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
754 re-implemented in a later release:
756 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
762 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
763 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
764 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
766 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
767 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
769 "Scratch files", a new PSPP extension:
771 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
772 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
773 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
774 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
777 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
778 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
779 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
781 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
782 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
783 reassigned to new files.
785 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
786 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
787 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
788 documentation on those particular commands.
792 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
793 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
794 format of these files.
796 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
797 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
798 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
799 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
802 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
803 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
804 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
805 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
806 native floating point format.
808 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
809 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
810 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
812 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
813 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
815 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
816 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
817 subcommands has been added.
819 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
820 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
821 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
824 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
825 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
827 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
828 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
829 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
833 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
834 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
837 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
838 have been extensively revised and improved.
840 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
843 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
845 Changes in build dependencies:
847 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
850 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
851 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
852 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
854 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
856 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
858 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
860 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
868 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
869 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
872 * T-TEST (re-written).
874 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
875 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
878 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
879 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
880 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
881 third-party software.
883 * SET EPOCH implemented.
885 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
888 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
890 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
891 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
892 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
894 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
895 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
897 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
898 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
900 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
901 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
902 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
905 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
906 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
909 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
912 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
915 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
916 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
917 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
919 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
921 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
923 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
926 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
927 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
930 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
931 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
933 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
937 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
940 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
941 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
943 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
944 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
946 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
949 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
952 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
955 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
956 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
957 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
959 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
961 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
963 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
967 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
969 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
973 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
974 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
976 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
978 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
980 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
984 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
986 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
988 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
989 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
991 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
992 didn't like being the last command in a file.
994 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
995 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
996 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
997 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
999 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
1000 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1001 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1003 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
1004 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
1005 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
1007 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
1008 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
1009 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1012 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
1013 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1016 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1017 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1019 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
1020 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1021 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1023 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
1024 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
1025 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
1027 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
1028 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
1029 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1032 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
1033 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1036 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1037 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1039 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
1042 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
1043 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1044 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1046 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
1047 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
1051 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
1052 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
1054 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
1055 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
1056 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
1058 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
1060 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
1064 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
1066 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
1068 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
1069 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
1071 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
1073 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
1074 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1076 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
1077 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
1079 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
1080 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
1083 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
1084 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
1089 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
1090 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
1091 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
1093 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
1097 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
1099 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
1100 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
1103 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
1104 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
1105 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
1107 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
1109 Procedures now implemented:
1110 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
1112 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
1115 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
1116 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
1127 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
1128 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
1131 New command-line features:
1132 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
1133 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
1134 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
1135 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
1136 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
1138 Operator LAG is now implemented.
1140 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
1142 Table output manager completely rewritten.
1144 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
1145 reinstall your `devices' file.
1147 New output driver for HTML.
1149 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
1151 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
1153 Added Texinfo documentation for:
1154 * PSPP system file format
1155 * PSPP portable file format
1156 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
1159 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
1160 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
1162 Changes for version 0.1.0:
1164 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
1165 versions, please see ONEWS.
1167 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1168 Copyright information:
1170 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
1171 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
1172 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
1173 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1175 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
1176 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
1177 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
1181 version-control: never