1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Time-stamp: <2009-05-24 16:40:48 blp>
3 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000, 2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end for copying conditions.
6 Please send PSPP bug reports to bug-gnu-pspp@gnu.org.
8 Changes from 0.7.1 to 0.7.2:
10 * Updated Perl module interface.
12 * Value labels for long string variables are now supported.
14 Changes from 0.7.0 to 0.7.1:
16 * Added a perl module to facilitate reading and writing of pspp system
17 files from perl programs.
19 Changes from 0.6.1 to 0.7.0:
21 * Custom variable and data file attributes are now supported.
22 Commands VARIABLE ATTRIBUTE and DATAFILE ATTRIBUTE have been added
23 for setting and clear attributes. Support for attributes has also
24 been added to commands that read and write system files, such as
25 SAVE and GET, as well as to the DISPLAY command.
27 Changes from 0.6.0 to 0.6.1:
29 * Statistical bug fixes:
31 - Report correct standardized regression coefficients in linear
32 regression output (bug #23567).
34 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
36 - Avoid crash with pie charts (bug #24014).
38 - Don't append % to count totals (bug #24003).
40 - Don't crash on bad input (bug #24031).
42 - Don't crash if "end data." is not left aligned (bug #24115).
44 - Change default workspace value to 64 MB, to avoid unnecessary
45 disk accesses on modern machines.
49 - Add ".sav" or ".por" suffix to filename when saving with Save_As
52 - Make it possible to reopen the output window on Windows (bug
55 - A POSIX regular expression library is now included and used
56 automatically if the host does not have one or has one that is
59 * Build fixes and changes:
61 - Work around bug in GSL that prevented build with recent GCC
62 versions without manually adding -fgnu89-inline to CFLAGS.
64 - Also warn about missing prerequisites as we encounter them (bug
67 - Distribute necessary files to allow users working from the
68 distributed tarball to configure with --enable-gui-tools.
70 - Append $(EXEEXT_FOR_BUILD) to output file name when building
71 q2c, fixing build problems on Windows.
73 - GSL 1.8 or later is now required.
75 - Build errors with --enable-relocatable were fixed.
77 * The German translations were removed, since native German speakers
78 found them too poor to be useful.
80 Changes from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0:
82 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
83 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
85 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE. This
86 interface allows you to enter data and variable definitions
87 interactively. Commands may be executed in syntax form, or by
88 using the interactive dialog boxes available from the dropdown
91 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
94 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
98 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
99 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
100 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
102 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
103 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
104 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
106 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
107 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
109 Statistical procedure changes:
111 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
112 via least-squares estimation.
114 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
115 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
117 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
120 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
121 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
123 User interface changes:
125 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
126 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
128 * PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
131 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
132 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
133 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
136 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
137 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
138 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
139 executed as if `+' had been specified.
141 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
142 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
143 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
145 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
146 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
147 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
148 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
153 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
154 manual for a full description of the available options.
156 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
157 "make install" will do this for you.
159 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
160 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
162 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
163 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
164 Previously, by default output was written only to file
165 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
166 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
171 - This driver now supports charts in output. Charts are written
172 as separate files that the main output file refers to. By
173 default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
174 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
176 - Configurations are provided that use VT100 (and xterm)
177 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
178 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
182 - The default paper size is now determined using the PAPERSIZE
183 environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale category on
184 systems that support it. If these are not set, the default is
185 now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the default,
186 set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
188 - Font metrics are now read from AFM files, instead of
189 Groff-format metrics files. PostScript fonts can now be
192 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
193 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install
194 AFM files for the standard PostScript fonts, including the
195 ones that the PostScript driver uses by default.
197 - Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
198 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
199 longer needed, or supported.
201 - The PostScript prologue is no longer obtained from the
202 "ps-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file is
203 no longer needed, or supported.
207 - The HTML prologue is no longer obtained from the
208 "html-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file
209 is no longer needed, or supported.
211 Command language changes:
213 * The following commands are new:
215 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files and
216 text data files. It will be extended later to read other
217 types of foreign data.
219 - CD, to change the current directory.
221 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
223 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
226 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
228 - CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
230 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
233 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
235 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
237 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
239 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
241 * PSPP now supports very long string variables (over 255 bytes
244 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
246 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
247 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
248 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
250 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
251 re-implemented in a later release:
253 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
259 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
260 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
261 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
263 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
264 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
266 "Scratch files", a new PSPP extension:
268 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
269 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
270 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
271 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
274 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
275 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
276 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
278 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
279 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
280 reassigned to new files.
282 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
283 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
284 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
285 documentation on those particular commands.
289 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
290 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
291 format of these files.
293 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
294 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
295 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
296 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
299 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
300 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
301 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
302 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
303 native floating point format.
305 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
306 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
307 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
309 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
310 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
312 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
313 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
314 subcommands has been added.
316 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
317 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
318 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
321 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
322 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
324 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
325 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
326 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
330 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
331 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
334 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
335 have been extensively revised and improved.
337 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
340 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
342 Changes in build dependencies:
344 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
347 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
348 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
349 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
351 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
353 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
355 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
357 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
365 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
366 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
369 * T-TEST (re-written).
371 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
372 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
375 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
376 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
377 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
378 third-party software.
380 * SET EPOCH implemented.
382 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
385 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
387 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
388 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
389 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
391 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
392 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
394 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
395 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
397 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
398 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
399 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
402 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
403 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
406 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
409 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
412 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
413 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
414 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
416 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
418 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
420 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
423 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
424 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
427 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
428 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
430 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
434 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
437 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
438 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
440 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
441 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
443 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
446 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
449 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
452 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
453 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
454 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
456 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
458 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
460 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
464 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
466 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
470 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
471 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
473 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
475 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
477 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
481 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
483 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
485 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
486 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
488 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
489 didn't like being the last command in a file.
491 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
492 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
493 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
494 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
496 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
497 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
498 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
500 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
501 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
502 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
504 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
505 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
506 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
509 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
510 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
513 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
514 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
516 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
517 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
518 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
520 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
521 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
522 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
524 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
525 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
526 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
529 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
530 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
533 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
534 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
536 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
539 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
540 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
541 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
543 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
544 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
548 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
549 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
551 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
552 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
553 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
555 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
557 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
561 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
563 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
565 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
566 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
568 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
570 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
571 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
573 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
574 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
576 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
577 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
580 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
581 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
586 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
587 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
588 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
590 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
594 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
596 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
597 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
600 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
601 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
602 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
604 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
606 Procedures now implemented:
607 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
609 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
612 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
613 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
624 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
625 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
628 New command-line features:
629 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
630 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
631 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
632 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
633 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
635 Operator LAG is now implemented.
637 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
639 Table output manager completely rewritten.
641 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
642 reinstall your `devices' file.
644 New output driver for HTML.
646 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
648 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
650 Added Texinfo documentation for:
651 * PSPP system file format
652 * PSPP portable file format
653 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
656 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
657 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
659 Changes for version 0.1.0:
661 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
662 versions, please see ONEWS.
664 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
665 Copyright information:
667 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
669 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
670 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
671 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
672 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
674 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
675 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
676 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
680 version-control: never