1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Time-stamp: <2008-10-03 21:21:11 blp>
3 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000, 2008 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 0.6.0 to 0.6.1:
10 * Statistical bug fixes:
12 - Report correct standardized regression coefficients in linear
13 regression output (bug #23567).
15 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
17 - Avoid crash with pie charts (bug #24014).
19 - Don't append % to count totals (bug #24003).
21 - Don't crash on bad input (bug #24031).
23 - Don't crash if "end data." is not left aligned (bug #24115).
25 - Change default workspace value to 64 MB, to avoid unnecessary
26 disk accesses on modern machines.
30 - Add ".sav" or ".por" suffix to filename when saving with Save_As
33 - Make it possible to reopen the output window on Windows (bug
36 * Build fixes and changes:
38 - Work around bug in GSL that prevented build with recent GCC
39 versions without manually adding -fgnu89-inline to CFLAGS.
41 - Also warn about missing prerequisites as we encounter them (bug
44 - Distribute necessary files to allow users working from the
45 distributed tarball to configure with --enable-gui-tools.
47 - Append $(EXEEXT_FOR_BUILD) to output file name when building
48 q2c, fixing build problems on Windows.
50 - GSL 1.8 or later is now required.
52 * The German translations were removed, since native German speakers
53 found them too poor to be useful.
55 Changes from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0:
57 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
58 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
60 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE. This
61 interface allows you to enter data and variable definitions
62 interactively. Commands may be executed in syntax form, or by
63 using the interactive dialog boxes available from the dropdown
66 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
69 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
73 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
74 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
75 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
77 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
78 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
79 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
81 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
82 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
84 Statistical procedure changes:
86 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
87 via least-squares estimation.
89 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
90 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
92 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
95 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
96 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
98 User interface changes:
100 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
101 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
103 * PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
106 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
107 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
108 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
111 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
112 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
113 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
114 executed as if `+' had been specified.
116 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
117 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
118 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
120 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
121 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
122 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
123 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
128 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
129 manual for a full description of the available options.
131 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
132 "make install" will do this for you.
134 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
135 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
137 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
138 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
139 Previously, by default output was written only to file
140 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
141 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
146 - This driver now supports charts in output. Charts are written
147 as separate files that the main output file refers to. By
148 default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
149 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
151 - Configurations are provided that use VT100 (and xterm)
152 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
153 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
157 - The default paper size is now determined using the PAPERSIZE
158 environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale category on
159 systems that support it. If these are not set, the default is
160 now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the default,
161 set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
163 - Font metrics are now read from AFM files, instead of
164 Groff-format metrics files. PostScript fonts can now be
167 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
168 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install
169 AFM files for the standard PostScript fonts, including the
170 ones that the PostScript driver uses by default.
172 - Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
173 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
174 longer needed, or supported.
176 - The PostScript prologue is no longer obtained from the
177 "ps-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file is
178 no longer needed, or supported.
182 - The HTML prologue is no longer obtained from the
183 "html-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file
184 is no longer needed, or supported.
186 Command language changes:
188 * The following commands are new:
190 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files and
191 text data files. It will be extended later to read other
192 types of foreign data.
194 - CD, to change the current directory.
196 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
198 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
201 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
203 - CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
205 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
208 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
210 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
212 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
214 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
216 * PSPP now supports very long string variables (over 255 bytes
219 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
221 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
222 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
223 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
225 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
226 re-implemented in a later release:
228 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
234 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
235 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
236 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
238 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
239 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
241 "Scratch files", a new PSPP extension:
243 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
244 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
245 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
246 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
249 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
250 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
251 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
253 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
254 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
255 reassigned to new files.
257 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
258 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
259 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
260 documentation on those particular commands.
264 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
265 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
266 format of these files.
268 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
269 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
270 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
271 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
274 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
275 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
276 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
277 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
278 native floating point format.
280 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
281 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
282 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
284 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
285 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
287 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
288 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
289 subcommands has been added.
291 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
292 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
293 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
296 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
297 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
299 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
300 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
301 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
305 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
306 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
309 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
310 have been extensively revised and improved.
312 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
315 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
317 Changes in build dependencies:
319 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
322 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
323 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
324 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
326 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
328 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
330 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
332 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
340 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
341 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
344 * T-TEST (re-written).
346 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
347 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
350 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
351 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
352 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
353 third-party software.
355 * SET EPOCH implemented.
357 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
360 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
362 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
363 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
364 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
366 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
367 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
369 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
370 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
372 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
373 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
374 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
377 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
378 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
381 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
384 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
387 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
388 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
389 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
391 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
393 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
395 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
398 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
399 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
402 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
403 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
405 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
409 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
412 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
413 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
415 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
416 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
418 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
421 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
424 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
427 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
428 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
429 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
431 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
433 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
435 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
439 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
441 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
445 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
446 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
448 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
450 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
452 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
456 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
458 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
460 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
461 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
463 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
464 didn't like being the last command in a file.
466 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
467 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
468 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
469 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
471 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
472 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
473 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
475 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
476 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
477 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
479 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
480 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
481 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
484 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
485 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
488 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
489 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
491 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
492 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
493 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
495 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
496 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
497 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
499 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
500 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
501 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
504 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
505 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
508 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
509 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
511 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
514 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
515 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
516 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
518 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
519 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
523 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
524 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
526 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
527 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
528 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
530 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
532 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
536 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
538 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
540 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
541 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
543 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
545 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
546 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
548 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
549 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
551 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
552 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
555 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
556 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
561 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
562 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
563 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
565 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
569 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
571 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
572 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
575 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
576 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
577 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
579 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
581 Procedures now implemented:
582 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
584 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
587 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
588 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
599 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
600 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
603 New command-line features:
604 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
605 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
606 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
607 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
608 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
610 Operator LAG is now implemented.
612 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
614 Table output manager completely rewritten.
616 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
617 reinstall your `devices' file.
619 New output driver for HTML.
621 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
623 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
625 Added Texinfo documentation for:
626 * PSPP system file format
627 * PSPP portable file format
628 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
631 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
632 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
634 Changes for version 0.1.0:
636 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
637 versions, please see ONEWS.
639 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
640 Copyright information:
642 Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
644 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
645 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
646 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
647 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
649 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
650 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
651 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
655 version-control: never