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 * An error in the FREQUENCIES procedure, where the word "Mean" was
10 printed when "Variance" was appropriate has been fixed.
12 * The ncurses library is no longer required or used.
14 * A bug where the Mann-Whitney test would give misleading results
15 if run on multiple variables and MISSING=ANALAYSIS was specified
18 * Gtk+3.14.5 or later must now be used when building.
20 * The AUTORECODE command now accepts an optional / before INTO.
22 * The short form of the VECTOR command can now create string variables.
24 Changes from 0.10.1 to 0.10.2:
26 * CROSSTABS implements a new COUNT subcommand to round case or cell
29 * Help will be opened as HTML in default browser if yelp
32 * When plotting scatterplots with only one dataset (the simple case)
33 the colour used for the dataset is now black. The previous default
34 from the Tango palette was too faint to see easily.
36 * The varible info dialog could previously only paste a single variable.
37 Now it can paste multiple variables.
39 * Bug fixes, including the following:
41 - T-test with independent samples GUI crashed with string
42 type variable as group variable.
44 - The variable info dialog showed the previous selected variable
45 superimposed with the currently selected one.
47 - The GLM command did not properly deal with missing values. This
50 Changes from 0.10.0 to 0.10.1:
52 * Bug fixes, including the following:
54 - A bug where certain dialog boxes could not be properly populated
57 - Various commands have been hardened against errors when called
60 * Translation updates. Thanks to our translators!
62 Changes from 0.8.5 to 0.10.0:
64 * The QUICK CLUSTER command has a /PRINT subcommand which shows
65 the initial cluster centres and the final cluster membership of
66 each case. The clustering algorithm has also been updated, so
67 as to produce better separated clusters.
69 * A Russian localisation has been contributed.
71 * The GRAPH command now has a /BAR subcommand to draw barcharts.
73 * If the DECIMAL character is set to COMMA then the ',' character
74 will not be treated as a separator by DATA LIST.
76 * The graphical user interface (psppire) has been changed as follows:
78 - It now uses Gtk+ version 3 instead of version 2. Accordingly, it has a
79 somewhat different look and feel.
81 - There is now a Graphs menu to access the GRAPH command.
83 - The status of dialog box widgets are now preserved between calls
84 to the same dialog box for the same dataset.
86 - The dialog box for the Logistic Regression command will now
87 infer that string variables or any varible with a "measure"
88 of Nominal or Ordinal are to be treated as categorical variables
89 and will generate syntax accordingly.
91 * The pspp-convert utility can now decrypt encrypted syntax files.
92 The encrypted syntax file format is unacceptably insecure, so to
93 discourage its use PSPP and PSPPIRE do not directly read or write
100 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
102 - REPLACE, for search-and-replace of one string with another.
104 - STRUNC, to truncate a string and trim trailing spaces.
106 - MEDIAN, to compute the median of its arguments.
108 - The TRUNC function in expressions now supports additional arguments
109 for truncating to values other than integers and to indicate a level
110 of rounding fuzz. The default rounding fuzz may now be controlled
111 and displayed with SET FUZZBITS and SHOW FUZZBITS, respectively.
113 * Bug fixes, including the following notable ones:
115 - The correlation coefficient in the paired samples t-test
116 procedure is now correctly calculated when presented with
119 - The ESCAPE subcommand has been removed from GET DATA /TYPE=TXT.
120 For compatibility, the behavior that ESCAPE enabled is now the
121 default and only supported behavior.
123 - Rendering of the variable and data sheets in right-to-left locales
126 - The Mann-Whitney test, when run on a dataset containing values
127 of the group variable, other than those defining the test groups,
128 would incorrectly calculate the ranks. This has been corrected.
130 * The IMPORTCASES subcommand on GET DATA is now ignored, for
133 Changes from 0.8.4 to 0.8.5:
135 * The FREQUENCIES and CROSSTABS commands can now generate barcharts.
137 * The FACTOR command can now perform PROMAX rotations.
139 * SPSS/PC+ system files are now supported on GET and other commands
140 that read SPSS system files. The pspp-convert program can now read
141 SPSS/PC+ system files. Writing the obsolete SPSS/PC+ system file
142 format is not supported.
144 * SYSFILE INFO can now read SPSS/PC+ system files and SPSS portable
147 * FREQUENCIES: A bug was fixed where an assertion failure occured
148 when an empty dataset was presented.
150 * The GRAPH command is now available. Initially it supports
151 scatterplots and histograms.
153 * The RND operator in expressions now supports additional operands
154 for rounding to values other than integers and to indicate a level
155 of rounding fuzz. The default rounding fuzz may now be controlled
156 and displayed with SET FUZZBITS and SHOW FUZZBITS, respectively.
158 Changes from 0.8.3 to 0.8.4:
160 * Formatting of SYSFILE INFO output was made easier to read.
162 * Bug fixes, including the following notable ones:
164 - FREQUENCIES works properly for string variables. (This bug was
165 introduced in 0.8.2.)
167 - CROSSTABS now correctly computes all of the measures that it
168 offers. Some measures have been removed because they were not
171 - The NPAR TESTS calculation of significance for the RUNS
172 subcommand has been corrected.
174 - Planned comparisons in ONEWAY ANOVA now correctly handle negative
177 - The COUNT command now correctly treats missing values as
180 - Conformance fixes to Open Document output format.
182 Changes from 0.8.2 to 0.8.3:
184 * Independent T-Tests displayed the standard error of the difference
185 and the confidence interval for the unequal variances case, where
186 the equal variances case should have been. This has been fixed.
188 * REGRESSION now recognises /STATISTICS=CI(x) which causes confidence
189 intervals for the coefficients to be printed.
191 * When DESCRIPTIVES calculates Z scores, it now omits cases filtered
192 by the current FILTER settings.
194 * PSPPIRE graphical user interface improvements:
196 - Dialog boxes with source variable lists can now choose the sort
197 order; right click and select from the popup menu.
199 - File|Open now allows an encoding to be selected for opening
202 - File|Display Data File Information|External File... now allows an
203 encoding to be selected.
205 - A problem with the Means dialog has been resolved (bug #41433).
207 - Several problems related to the input of spreadsheets have been
208 fixed (bug #41657, #41620
210 * System file related improvements:
212 - With ENCODING="DETECT", SYSFILE INFO can now help the user to
213 pick an encoding for reading a system file that does not identify
216 - SYSFILE INFO now accepts an ENCODING subcommand to specify the
217 character encoding of string data in the system file.
219 - Variable labels over 255 bytes long are now accepted without
220 truncation (bug #41863).
222 - System files that contain duplicate variable names may now be
223 read successfully (bug #41475).
225 Changes from 0.8.1 to 0.8.2:
227 * Charts are now rendered with colours from the Tango palette instead
228 of fully saturated primaries.
230 * Support for new system file variants:
232 - PSPP can now read and write ZCOMPRESSED system files, which
233 compress data much more effectively than older "compressed"
234 files. (The older format is still supported.)
236 - PSPP can now decrypt encrypted system files, using the new
237 pspp-convert utility. The encrypted system file format is
238 unacceptably insecure, so to discourage its use PSPP and PSPPIRE
239 do not directly read or write this format.
241 * Missing values for long string variables are now read from and
242 written to system files in an SPSS-compatible fashion.
244 (Earlier versions of PSPP that supported missing values for long
245 string variables wrote them to system files in an SPSS-incompatible
246 way. To fix the problem, read the system file with this version of
247 PSPP and then save a new copy of it.)
249 * pspp-convert, a new standalone utility for converting SPSS system
250 and portable files to other formats, is now included. The initial
251 version supports comma-separated value files as output format.
252 pspp-convert can also decrypt encrypted system files.
256 - zlib is now a required dependency. (Previously it was optional.)
258 Changes from 0.8.0 to 0.8.1:
264 * Changes to existing commands:
266 - CROSSTABS: The requirement that one expected count must be less than five
267 before Fishers Exact Test will be reported has been removed.
269 * PSPPIRE graphical user interface improvements:
271 - A new set of icons has been contributed.
273 - Syntax windows now parse syntax in "auto" mode, which in practice
274 should mean that both "batch" and "interactive" syntax now works,
275 instead of just "interactive" syntax.
277 - The variable pane of data windows now include a Role column.
281 - System files written by IBM SPSS 21 are now read without warnings.
283 - System files written by "VOXCO INTERVIEWER 4.3" are now read
286 - PSPPIRE should now more gracefully handle syntax files that contain
289 Changes from 0.6.2 to 0.8.0:
295 - DATAFILE ATTRIBUTES
302 - LOGISTIC REGRESSION
306 - PRESERVE and RESTORE
310 - SAVE TRANSLATE to CSV and tab-delimited files
312 - VARIABLE ATTRIBUTES
314 * Changes to existing commands:
316 - AUTORECODE has a new GROUP subcommand.
318 - CROSSTABS has been re-implemented to fix numerous bugs.
320 - EXAMINE: /MISSING=LISTWISE is now the default.
322 - DO REPEAT command has been reimplemented. Now, when DO REPEAT
323 contains an INCLUDE or INSERT command, substitutions are not
324 applied to the included file.
326 - FILE HANDLE has a new ENDS subcommand to select CR or CRLF new-lines.
328 - HOST has been updated to use more modern syntax.
330 - Most commands that work with data files now support a new
333 - MISSING VALUES can now assign missing values to long string
336 - ONEWAY: the POSTHOC subcommand is now implemented.
338 - The following new subcommands to NPAR TESTS have been implemented:
339 COCHRAN, FRIEDMAN, JONCKHEERE-TERPSTRA, KENDALL, KRUSKAL-WALLIS, MANN-WHITNEY,
340 MCNEMAR, SIGN, WILCOXON, and RUNS
342 - SET and SHOW no longer have ENDCMD, NULLINE, PROMPT, CPROMPT, and
343 DPROMPT subcommands. The defaults are now fixed values.
345 - SHOW now has a JOURNAL subcommand, to show the location of the
348 - VALUE LABELS can now assign value labels to long string
351 * Other language changes:
353 - The new DATASET commands replace the "scratch file" PSPP
354 extension, which is no longer supported.
356 - Strings may now include arbitrary Unicode code points specified
357 in hexadecimal, using the syntax U'hhhh'. For example, Unicode
358 code point U+1D11E, the musical G clef character, may be
359 expressed as U'1D11E'.
361 See the "Tokens" section in the PSPP manual for more information.
363 - In previous versions of PSPP, in a string expressed in
364 hexadecimal with X'hh' syntax, the hexadecimal digits expressed
365 bytes in the locale encoding. In this version of PSPP, X'hh'
366 syntax always expresses bytes in UTF-8 encoding.
368 See the "Tokens" section in the PSPP manual for more information.
370 * PSPPIRE graphical user interface improvements:
372 - Added support for non-ASCII characters in strings, labels and
375 - A "Split Window" function is available, which makes it easier to
376 see different parts of a large data file.
378 - Data files can now be opened by specifing their name as the first
379 argument. This means that on a properly configured desktop, double
380 clicking on an icon will open the file.
382 - Foreign formats, such as Gnumeric, OpenDocument and CSV can be imported
383 via using an "intelligent" application assistant dialog.
387 - The new "cairo" output driver supports output in PostScript, PDF,
388 and SVG formats. Its functionality is a superset of that of the
389 "postscript" driver, which has been removed. You must have Cairo
390 and Pango installed to build the "cairo" driver.
392 - Charts are now produced with Cairo and Pango, instead of libplot.
393 Without them, the new graphing features will not work. If you do
394 not have Cairo and Pango installed, you must run `configure' with
397 - The plain text output driver now properly supports multibyte UTF-8
398 characters, including double-width characters and combining
401 - Output to OpenDocument format is now supported.
403 - The HTML output is much improved.
405 * The "pspp" program has a new option --batch (or -b) that selects
406 "batch" syntax mode. In previous versions of PSPP this syntax mode
407 was the default. Now a new "auto" syntax mode is the default. In
408 "auto" mode, PSPP interprets most syntax files correctly regardless
409 of their intended syntax mode.
411 See the "Syntax Variants" section in the PSPP manual for more
414 * The "pspp" program has a new option --syntax-encoding that
415 specifies the encoding for syntax files listed on the command line,
416 as well as the default encoding for syntax files included with
417 INCLUDE or INSERT. The default is to accept the system locale
418 encoding, UTF-8, UTF-16, or UTF-32, automatically detecting which
419 one the system file uses.
421 See the documentation for the INSERT command in the PSPP manual for
424 * Text data files that PRINT and WRITE creates now use the system
425 native line ends by default (CRLF on Windows, LF only elsewhere).
426 Use the new ENDS subcommand on FILE HANDLE to override the default.
428 * A new Perl module allows Perl programs to read and write PSPP
431 * A tutorial chapter has been added to the user manual.
433 Changes from 0.6.1 to 0.6.2:
437 - Dutch, thanks to Harry Thijssen.
439 - Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Michel Boaventura.
441 Thanks for translations are also due to the coordinators at
442 translationproject.org.
444 * Statistical bug fixes:
446 - REGRESSION: Report correct standard error of the estimate (bug
449 - T-TEST: Report correct significance of paired sample T-test in
450 the common case (bug #26936) and corner cases. Thanks to Mike
451 Griffiths and Matej Cepl for reporting these bugs.
453 * Build fixes and changes:
455 - Fix build with GTK+ 2.17.4 and later.
457 - Make running "make" after running "configure" with different
458 settings reliably rebuild version.c.
460 - Cygwin and MinGW build fixes.
462 - Fixes for building with recent gnulib.
464 - The Makefile now honors two new variables, PSPP_LDFLAGS and
465 PSPPIRE_LDFLAGS, that affect linking of the PSPP and PSPPIRE
466 binaries, respectively. This makes building easier for some
469 - Fixes for "configure --enable-relocatable" (bug #25508).
471 * Data file bug fixes and changes:
473 - Fix reading text data files that contain a mix of white space
474 and commas. Now "a ,b" is treated as two fields containing "a"
475 and "b"; previously it was treated as three, with an empty field
478 - Fix writing corrupted .sav files on Windows.
480 - Fix writing variable labels longer than 252 bytes to save files.
481 Thanks to Robert Westlund for reporting this bug.
483 - Fix writing corrupted .por files (bug #26034).
485 - Fix reading .por files whose initial lines are not padded out
486 with spaces as expected.
488 - PSPP will no longer issue warnings about some .sav file records
489 or values that it does not understand. These warnings were
490 harmless, but needlessly alarmed some users.
492 - Fix crash reading empty string fields from PostgreSQL databases.
494 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
496 - Users may now control precision of output statistics. Instead
497 of hard coding the width and decimals of output numbers, respect
498 the default format in most instances. Counts are now normally
499 displayed with the format of the weight variable, if any.
501 - Fix crash when an INSERT command specifies the name of a file
502 that does not exist (bug #24569).
504 - Fix crash when CROSSTABS specifies a long-string variable (bugs
507 - Fix crash drawing pie charts with many segments.
509 - Fix crash when NUMERIC specifies an invalid format.
511 * PSPPIRE bug fixes and changes:
513 - On Windows, write the output file to the user's home directory
514 instead of the current directory, to better match user
517 - Some data editor fixes.
521 - Fix typo in BINOMIAL section of user manual (bug #25892).
523 Changes from 0.6.0 to 0.6.1:
525 * Statistical bug fixes:
527 - Report correct standardized regression coefficients in linear
528 regression output (bug #23567).
530 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
532 - Avoid crash with pie charts (bug #24014).
534 - Don't append % to count totals (bug #24003).
536 - Don't crash on bad input (bug #24031).
538 - Don't crash if "end data." is not left aligned (bug #24115).
540 - Change default workspace value to 64 MB, to avoid unnecessary
541 disk accesses on modern machines.
545 - Add ".sav" or ".por" suffix to filename when saving with Save_As
548 - Make it possible to reopen the output window on Windows (bug
551 - A POSIX regular expression library is now included and used
552 automatically if the host does not have one or has one that is
555 * Build fixes and changes:
557 - Work around bug in GSL that prevented build with recent GCC
558 versions without manually adding -fgnu89-inline to CFLAGS.
560 - Also warn about missing prerequisites as we encounter them (bug
563 - Distribute necessary files to allow users working from the
564 distributed tarball to configure with --enable-gui-tools.
566 - Append $(EXEEXT_FOR_BUILD) to output file name when building
567 q2c, fixing build problems on Windows.
569 - GSL 1.8 or later is now required.
571 - Build errors with --enable-relocatable were fixed.
573 * The German translations were removed, since native German speakers
574 found them too poor to be useful.
576 Changes from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0:
578 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
579 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
581 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE. This
582 interface allows you to enter data and variable definitions
583 interactively. Commands may be executed in syntax form, or by
584 using the interactive dialog boxes available from the dropdown
587 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
590 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
594 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
595 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
596 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
598 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
599 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
600 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
602 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
603 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
605 Statistical procedure changes:
607 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
608 via least-squares estimation.
610 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
611 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
613 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
616 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
617 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
619 User interface changes:
621 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
622 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
624 * PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
627 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
628 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
629 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
632 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
633 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
634 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
635 executed as if `+' had been specified.
637 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
638 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
639 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
641 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
642 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
643 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
644 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
649 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
650 manual for a full description of the available options.
652 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
653 "make install" will do this for you.
655 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
656 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
658 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
659 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
660 Previously, by default output was written only to file
661 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
662 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
667 - This driver now supports charts in output. Charts are written
668 as separate files that the main output file refers to. By
669 default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
670 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
672 - Configurations are provided that use VT100 (and xterm)
673 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
674 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
678 - The default paper size is now determined using the PAPERSIZE
679 environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale category on
680 systems that support it. If these are not set, the default is
681 now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the default,
682 set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
684 - Font metrics are now read from AFM files, instead of
685 Groff-format metrics files. PostScript fonts can now be
688 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
689 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install
690 AFM files for the standard PostScript fonts, including the
691 ones that the PostScript driver uses by default.
693 - Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
694 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
695 longer needed, or supported.
697 - The PostScript prologue is no longer obtained from the
698 "ps-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file is
699 no longer needed, or supported.
703 - The HTML prologue is no longer obtained from the
704 "html-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file
705 is no longer needed, or supported.
707 Command language changes:
709 * The following commands are new:
711 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files and
712 text data files. It will be extended later to read other
713 types of foreign data.
715 - CD, to change the current directory.
717 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
719 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
722 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
724 - CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
726 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
729 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
731 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
733 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
735 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
737 * PSPP now supports very long string variables (over 255 bytes
740 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
742 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
743 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
744 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
746 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
747 re-implemented in a later release:
749 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
755 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
756 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
757 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
759 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
760 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
762 "Scratch files", a new PSPP extension:
764 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
765 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
766 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
767 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
770 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
771 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
772 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
774 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
775 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
776 reassigned to new files.
778 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
779 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
780 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
781 documentation on those particular commands.
785 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
786 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
787 format of these files.
789 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
790 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
791 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
792 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
795 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
796 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
797 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
798 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
799 native floating point format.
801 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
802 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
803 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
805 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
806 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
808 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
809 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
810 subcommands has been added.
812 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
813 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
814 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
817 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
818 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
820 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
821 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
822 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
826 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
827 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
830 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
831 have been extensively revised and improved.
833 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
836 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
838 Changes in build dependencies:
840 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
843 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
844 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
845 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
847 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
849 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
851 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
853 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
861 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
862 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
865 * T-TEST (re-written).
867 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
868 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
871 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
872 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
873 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
874 third-party software.
876 * SET EPOCH implemented.
878 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
881 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
883 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
884 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
885 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
887 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
888 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
890 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
891 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
893 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
894 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
895 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
898 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
899 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
902 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
905 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
908 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
909 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
910 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
912 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
914 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
916 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
919 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
920 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
923 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
924 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
926 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
930 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
933 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
934 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
936 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
937 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
939 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
942 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
945 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
948 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
949 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
950 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
952 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
954 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
956 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
960 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
962 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
966 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
967 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
969 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
971 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
973 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
977 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
979 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
981 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
982 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
984 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
985 didn't like being the last command in a file.
987 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
988 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
989 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
990 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
992 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
993 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
994 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
996 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
997 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
998 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
1000 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
1001 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
1002 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1005 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
1006 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1009 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1010 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1012 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
1013 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1014 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1016 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
1017 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
1018 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
1020 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
1021 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
1022 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1025 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
1026 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1029 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1030 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1032 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
1035 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
1036 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1037 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1039 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
1040 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
1044 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
1045 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
1047 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
1048 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
1049 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
1051 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
1053 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
1057 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
1059 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
1061 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
1062 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
1064 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
1066 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
1067 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1069 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
1070 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
1072 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
1073 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
1076 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
1077 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
1082 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
1083 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
1084 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
1086 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
1090 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
1092 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
1093 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
1096 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
1097 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
1098 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
1100 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
1102 Procedures now implemented:
1103 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
1105 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
1108 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
1109 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
1120 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
1121 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
1124 New command-line features:
1125 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
1126 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
1127 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
1128 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
1129 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
1131 Operator LAG is now implemented.
1133 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
1135 Table output manager completely rewritten.
1137 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
1138 reinstall your `devices' file.
1140 New output driver for HTML.
1142 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
1144 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
1146 Added Texinfo documentation for:
1147 * PSPP system file format
1148 * PSPP portable file format
1149 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
1152 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
1153 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
1155 Changes for version 0.1.0:
1157 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
1158 versions, please see ONEWS.
1160 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1161 Copyright information:
1163 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
1164 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
1165 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
1166 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1168 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
1169 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
1170 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
1174 version-control: never