1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Time-stamp: <2007-11-03 23:01:41 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 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
11 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
13 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE.
15 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
18 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
22 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
23 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
24 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
26 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
27 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
28 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
30 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
31 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
33 Statistical procedure changes:
35 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
36 via least-squares estimation.
38 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
39 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
41 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
44 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
45 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
47 User interface changes:
49 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
50 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
52 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
53 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
54 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
57 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
58 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
59 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
60 executed as if `+' had been specified.
62 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
63 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
64 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
66 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
67 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
68 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
69 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
74 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
75 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
77 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
78 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
79 Previously, by default output was written only to file
80 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
81 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
84 * The ASCII output driver now supports charts in output. Charts
85 are written as separate files that the main output file refers
86 to. By default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
87 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
89 * An output device is provided that uses VT100 (and xterm)
90 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
91 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
93 * The default paper size for the PostScript driver is now determined
94 using the PAPERSIZE environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale
95 category on systems that support it. If these are not set, the
96 default is now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the
97 default, set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
99 * Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
100 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
101 longer needed, or supported.
103 * The HTML and PostScript prologues are no longer obtained from
104 the "html-prologue" and "ps-prologue" configuration files.
105 These configuration files are no longer needed, or supported.
107 Command language changes:
109 * The following commands are new:
111 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files. It
112 will be extended later to read other types of foreign data
115 - CD, to change the current directory.
117 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
119 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
122 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
124 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
127 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
129 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
131 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
133 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
135 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
137 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
138 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
139 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
141 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
142 re-implemented in a later release:
144 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
150 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
151 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
152 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
154 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
155 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
159 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
160 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
161 format of these files.
163 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
164 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
165 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
166 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
169 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
170 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
171 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
172 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
173 native floating point format.
175 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
176 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
177 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
179 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
180 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
182 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
183 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
184 subcommands has been added.
186 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
187 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
188 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
191 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
192 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
194 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
195 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
196 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
200 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
201 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
204 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
205 have been extensively revised and improved.
207 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
210 Changes since 0.4.0 to 0.4.1:
212 Added support for very long string variables (over 255 bytes long).
216 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
217 manual for a full description of the available options.
219 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
220 "make install" will do this for you.
222 * The PostScript driver now obtains font metrics from AFM files,
223 instead of Groff-format metrics files. It can now embed
224 PostScript fonts in its output.
226 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
227 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install AFM
228 files for the standard PostScript files, including the ones that
229 the PostScript driver uses by default.
231 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
233 * CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
237 * XEXPORT (a PSPP extension).
241 A new PSPP extension called "scratch files" has been implemented.
242 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
243 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
244 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
245 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
248 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
249 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
250 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
252 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
253 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
254 reassigned to new files.
256 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
257 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
258 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
259 documentation on those particular commands.
261 PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
264 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
266 Changes in build dependencies:
268 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
271 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
272 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
273 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
275 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
277 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
279 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
281 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
289 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
290 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
293 * T-TEST (re-written).
295 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
296 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
299 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
300 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
301 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
302 third-party software.
304 * SET EPOCH implemented.
306 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
309 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
311 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
312 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
313 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
315 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
316 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
318 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
319 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
321 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
322 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
323 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
326 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
327 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
330 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
333 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
336 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
337 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
338 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
340 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
342 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
344 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
347 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
348 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
351 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
352 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
354 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
358 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
361 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
362 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
364 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
365 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
367 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
370 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
373 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
376 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
377 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
378 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
380 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
382 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
384 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
388 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
390 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
394 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
395 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
397 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
399 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
401 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
405 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
407 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
409 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
410 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
412 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
413 didn't like being the last command in a file.
415 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
416 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
417 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
418 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
420 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
421 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
422 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
424 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
425 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
426 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
428 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
429 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
430 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
433 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
434 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
437 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
438 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
440 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
441 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
442 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
444 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
445 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
446 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
448 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
449 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
450 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
453 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
454 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
457 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
458 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
460 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
463 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
464 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
465 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
467 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
468 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
472 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
473 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
475 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
476 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
477 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
479 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
481 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
485 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
487 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
489 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
490 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
492 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
494 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
495 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
497 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
498 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
500 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
501 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
504 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
505 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
510 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
511 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
512 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
514 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
518 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
520 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
521 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
524 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
525 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
526 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
528 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
530 Procedures now implemented:
531 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
533 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
536 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
537 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
548 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
549 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
552 New command-line features:
553 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
554 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
555 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
556 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
557 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
559 Operator LAG is now implemented.
561 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
563 Table output manager completely rewritten.
565 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
566 reinstall your `devices' file.
568 New output driver for HTML.
570 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
572 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
574 Added Texinfo documentation for:
575 * PSPP system file format
576 * PSPP portable file format
577 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
580 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
581 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
583 Changes for version 0.1.0:
585 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
586 versions, please see ONEWS.
588 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
589 Copyright information:
591 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
593 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
594 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
595 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
596 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
598 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
599 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
600 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
604 version-control: never