PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
-Time-stamp: <2007-09-22 17:48:06 blp>
+Time-stamp: <2007-11-03 23:01:41 blp>
Copyright (C) 1996-9, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
See the end for copying conditions.
Changes since 0.4.3:
- The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General Public
- License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
+ * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
+ Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
- Changes in build dependencies:
+ * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE.
+
+ * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
+ directory.
+
+ * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
+
+ Build changes:
+
+ * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
+ PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
+ instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
* iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
- The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed. You
- may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following TEMPORARY, which
- has the same effect.
+ * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
+ required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
+
+ Statistical procedure changes:
+
+ * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
+ via least-squares estimation.
+
+ * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
+ release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
+
+ * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
+ forms of ranking.
+
+ * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
+ features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
+
+ User interface changes:
+
+ * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
+ error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
+
+ * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
+ implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
+ `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
+ control journaling.
+
+ * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
+ prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
+ executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
+ executed as if `+' had been specified.
+
+ * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
+ longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
+ to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
+
+ * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
+ directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
+ syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
+ --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
+ behavior.
+
+ Output changes:
+
+ * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
+ default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
+
+ * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
+ on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
+ Previously, by default output was written only to file
+ pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
+ automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
+ is resized.
+
+ * The ASCII output driver now supports charts in output. Charts
+ are written as separate files that the main output file refers
+ to. By default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
+ pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
+
+ * An output device is provided that uses VT100 (and xterm)
+ line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
+ requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
+
+ * The default paper size for the PostScript driver is now determined
+ using the PAPERSIZE environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale
+ category on systems that support it. If these are not set, the
+ default is now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the
+ default, set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
+
+ * Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
+ configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
+ longer needed, or supported.
+
+ * The HTML and PostScript prologues are no longer obtained from
+ the "html-prologue" and "ps-prologue" configuration files.
+ These configuration files are no longer needed, or supported.
+
+ Command language changes:
+
+ * The following commands are new:
+
+ - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files. It
+ will be extended later to read other types of foreign data
+ files.
+
+ - CD, to change the current directory.
+
+ - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
+
+ - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
+ dictionary.
+
+ - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
+
+ - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
+ to EXPORT.
+
+ * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
+
+ - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
+
+ - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
+
+ - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
+
+ * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
+
+ * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
+ write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
+ the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
+
+ * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
+ re-implemented in a later release:
+
+ - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
+
+ - MATRIX DATA
+
+ - REPEATING DATA
+
+ * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
+ You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
+ TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
+
+ * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
+ specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
+
+ Data access changes:
+
+ * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
+ translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
+ format of these files.
+
+ * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
+ supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
+ data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
+ control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
+ native endianness.
+
+ * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
+ floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
+ files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
+ control the floating point format. The default is the host's
+ native floating point format.
+
+ * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
+ the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
+ treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
+
+ * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
+ PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
+
+ * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
+ results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
+ subcommands has been added.
+
+ * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
+ every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
+ when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
+ unchanged.)
+
+ * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
+ beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
+
+ * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
+ a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
+ (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
+
+ Documentation:
+
+ * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
+ now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
+ output.
- The default paper size for the PostScript driver is now determined
- using the PAPERSIZE environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale
- category on systems that support it. If these are not set, the
- default is now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the
- default, set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
+ * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
+ have been extensively revised and improved.
For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
Automake 1.10.
projects / pspp-builds.git / commitdiff