1 PSPP NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996-2000, 2008-2016, 2017, 2019 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 1.2.0 to 1.3.0:
9 * Plain text output is no longer divided into pages, since it is now
10 rarely printed on paper.
12 * pspp-convert: New "-a", "-l", "--password-list" options to search
13 for an encrypted file's password.
15 * Improvements to SAVE DATA COLLECTION support for MDD files.
17 * Bug fix for CVE-2018-20230.
19 * The REGRESSION command now supports the /STATISTICS=COLLIN which
20 outputs collinearity metrics for the data.
22 * A bug where the GUI would crash when T-TEST was executed whilst
23 a filter was set has been fixed.
25 Changes from 1.0.1 to 1.2.0:
27 * New experimental command SAVE DATA COLLECTION to save MDD files.
29 * MTIME and YMDHMS variable formats now supported.
33 - zlib is now a required dependency. (Previously it was optional.)
35 - Gtk+3.18.0 or later must now be used when building.
37 - The code implementing the sheet rendering has been removed. Instead we
38 use a third party library: spread-sheet-widget.
40 * The "NOMISSING" keyword when generating syntax for piecharts in the
41 frequencies command was omitted. This has been corrected.
43 Changes from 1.0.0 to 1.0.1:
45 * Bug fixes, including fixes for CVE-2017-12958, CVE-2017-12959,
46 CVE-2017-12960, and CVE-2017-12961.
48 Changes from 0.11.0 to 1.0.0:
50 * Translation updates.
52 Changes from 0.10.2 to 0.11.0:
54 * The REGRESSION command now has a /ORIGIN subcommand to perform
55 regression through the origin.
57 * The FACTOR command can now analyse matrix files prepared with MATRIX DATA.
59 * The FACTOR command can now print the anti-image matrices.
61 * The MATRIX DATA command has been added.
63 * Some inappropriate properties in selection dialogs have been corrected.
65 * A bug which could cause the HTML driver to go into a tight loop
68 * An error in the FREQUENCIES procedure, where the word "Mean" was
69 printed when "Variance" was appropriate has been fixed.
71 * The ncurses library is no longer required or used.
73 * A bug where the Mann-Whitney test would give misleading results
74 if run on multiple variables and MISSING=ANALAYSIS was specified
77 * Gtk+3.14.5 or later must now be used when building.
79 * Graphical user interface changes:
81 ** There is a new menu: Edit|Options
83 ** The Non Parametric Statistics Menu has a new item: "K Independent Samples".
85 ** Dialog boxes can now be canceled using the <Escape> key.
87 * The AUTORECODE command now accepts an optional / before INTO.
89 * The short form of the VECTOR command can now create string variables.
91 * Bug fixes, including fixes for CVE-2017-10791 and CVE-2017-10792.
93 Changes from 0.10.1 to 0.10.2:
95 * CROSSTABS implements a new COUNT subcommand to round case or cell
98 * Help will be opened as HTML in default browser if yelp
101 * When plotting scatterplots with only one dataset (the simple case)
102 the colour used for the dataset is now black. The previous default
103 from the Tango palette was too faint to see easily.
105 * The varible info dialog could previously only paste a single variable.
106 Now it can paste multiple variables.
108 * Bug fixes, including the following:
110 - T-test with independent samples GUI crashed with string
111 type variable as group variable.
113 - The variable info dialog showed the previous selected variable
114 superimposed with the currently selected one.
116 - The GLM command did not properly deal with missing values. This
119 Changes from 0.10.0 to 0.10.1:
121 * Bug fixes, including the following:
123 - A bug where certain dialog boxes could not be properly populated
126 - Various commands have been hardened against errors when called
129 * Translation updates. Thanks to our translators!
131 Changes from 0.8.5 to 0.10.0:
133 * The QUICK CLUSTER command has a /PRINT subcommand which shows
134 the initial cluster centres and the final cluster membership of
135 each case. The clustering algorithm has also been updated, so
136 as to produce better separated clusters.
138 * A Russian localisation has been contributed.
140 * The GRAPH command now has a /BAR subcommand to draw barcharts.
142 * If the DECIMAL character is set to COMMA then the ',' character
143 will not be treated as a separator by DATA LIST.
145 * The graphical user interface (psppire) has been changed as follows:
147 - It now uses Gtk+ version 3 instead of version 2. Accordingly, it has a
148 somewhat different look and feel.
150 - There is now a Graphs menu to access the GRAPH command.
152 - The status of dialog box widgets are now preserved between calls
153 to the same dialog box for the same dataset.
155 - The dialog box for the Logistic Regression command will now
156 infer that string variables or any varible with a "measure"
157 of Nominal or Ordinal are to be treated as categorical variables
158 and will generate syntax accordingly.
160 * The pspp-convert utility can now decrypt encrypted syntax files.
161 The encrypted syntax file format is unacceptably insecure, so to
162 discourage its use PSPP and PSPPIRE do not directly read or write
169 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
171 - REPLACE, for search-and-replace of one string with another.
173 - STRUNC, to truncate a string and trim trailing spaces.
175 - MEDIAN, to compute the median of its arguments.
177 - The TRUNC function in expressions now supports additional arguments
178 for truncating to values other than integers and to indicate a level
179 of rounding fuzz. The default rounding fuzz may now be controlled
180 and displayed with SET FUZZBITS and SHOW FUZZBITS, respectively.
182 * Bug fixes, including the following notable ones:
184 - The correlation coefficient in the paired samples t-test
185 procedure is now correctly calculated when presented with
188 - The ESCAPE subcommand has been removed from GET DATA /TYPE=TXT.
189 For compatibility, the behavior that ESCAPE enabled is now the
190 default and only supported behavior.
192 - Rendering of the variable and data sheets in right-to-left locales
195 - The Mann-Whitney test, when run on a dataset containing values
196 of the group variable, other than those defining the test groups,
197 would incorrectly calculate the ranks. This has been corrected.
199 * The IMPORTCASES subcommand on GET DATA is now ignored, for
202 Changes from 0.8.4 to 0.8.5:
204 * The FREQUENCIES and CROSSTABS commands can now generate barcharts.
206 * The FACTOR command can now perform PROMAX rotations.
208 * SPSS/PC+ system files are now supported on GET and other commands
209 that read SPSS system files. The pspp-convert program can now read
210 SPSS/PC+ system files. Writing the obsolete SPSS/PC+ system file
211 format is not supported.
213 * SYSFILE INFO can now read SPSS/PC+ system files and SPSS portable
216 * FREQUENCIES: A bug was fixed where an assertion failure occurred
217 when an empty dataset was presented.
219 * The GRAPH command is now available. Initially it supports
220 scatterplots and histograms.
222 * The RND operator in expressions now supports additional operands
223 for rounding to values other than integers and to indicate a level
224 of rounding fuzz. The default rounding fuzz may now be controlled
225 and displayed with SET FUZZBITS and SHOW FUZZBITS, respectively.
227 Changes from 0.8.3 to 0.8.4:
229 * Formatting of SYSFILE INFO output was made easier to read.
231 * Bug fixes, including the following notable ones:
233 - FREQUENCIES works properly for string variables. (This bug was
234 introduced in 0.8.2.)
236 - CROSSTABS now correctly computes all of the measures that it
237 offers. Some measures have been removed because they were not
240 - The NPAR TESTS calculation of significance for the RUNS
241 subcommand has been corrected.
243 - Planned comparisons in ONEWAY ANOVA now correctly handle negative
246 - The COUNT command now correctly treats missing values as
249 - Conformance fixes to Open Document output format.
251 Changes from 0.8.2 to 0.8.3:
253 * Independent T-Tests displayed the standard error of the difference
254 and the confidence interval for the unequal variances case, where
255 the equal variances case should have been. This has been fixed.
257 * REGRESSION now recognises /STATISTICS=CI(x) which causes confidence
258 intervals for the coefficients to be printed.
260 * When DESCRIPTIVES calculates Z scores, it now omits cases filtered
261 by the current FILTER settings.
263 * PSPPIRE graphical user interface improvements:
265 - Dialog boxes with source variable lists can now choose the sort
266 order; right click and select from the popup menu.
268 - File|Open now allows an encoding to be selected for opening
271 - File|Display Data File Information|External File... now allows an
272 encoding to be selected.
274 - A problem with the Means dialog has been resolved (bug #41433).
276 - Several problems related to the input of spreadsheets have been
277 fixed (bug #41657, #41620
279 * System file related improvements:
281 - With ENCODING="DETECT", SYSFILE INFO can now help the user to
282 pick an encoding for reading a system file that does not identify
285 - SYSFILE INFO now accepts an ENCODING subcommand to specify the
286 character encoding of string data in the system file.
288 - Variable labels over 255 bytes long are now accepted without
289 truncation (bug #41863).
291 - System files that contain duplicate variable names may now be
292 read successfully (bug #41475).
294 Changes from 0.8.1 to 0.8.2:
296 * Charts are now rendered with colours from the Tango palette instead
297 of fully saturated primaries.
299 * Support for new system file variants:
301 - PSPP can now read and write ZCOMPRESSED system files, which
302 compress data much more effectively than older "compressed"
303 files. (The older format is still supported.)
305 - PSPP can now decrypt encrypted system files, using the new
306 pspp-convert utility. The encrypted system file format is
307 unacceptably insecure, so to discourage its use PSPP and PSPPIRE
308 do not directly read or write this format.
310 * Missing values for long string variables are now read from and
311 written to system files in an SPSS-compatible fashion.
313 (Earlier versions of PSPP that supported missing values for long
314 string variables wrote them to system files in an SPSS-incompatible
315 way. To fix the problem, read the system file with this version of
316 PSPP and then save a new copy of it.)
318 * pspp-convert, a new standalone utility for converting SPSS system
319 and portable files to other formats, is now included. The initial
320 version supports comma-separated value files as output format.
321 pspp-convert can also decrypt encrypted system files.
325 - zlib is now a required dependency. (Previously it was optional.)
327 Changes from 0.8.0 to 0.8.1:
333 * Changes to existing commands:
335 - CROSSTABS: The requirement that one expected count must be less than five
336 before Fishers Exact Test will be reported has been removed.
338 * PSPPIRE graphical user interface improvements:
340 - A new set of icons has been contributed.
342 - Syntax windows now parse syntax in "auto" mode, which in practice
343 should mean that both "batch" and "interactive" syntax now works,
344 instead of just "interactive" syntax.
346 - The variable pane of data windows now include a Role column.
350 - System files written by IBM SPSS 21 are now read without warnings.
352 - System files written by "VOXCO INTERVIEWER 4.3" are now read
355 - PSPPIRE should now more gracefully handle syntax files that contain
358 Changes from 0.6.2 to 0.8.0:
364 - DATAFILE ATTRIBUTES
371 - LOGISTIC REGRESSION
375 - PRESERVE and RESTORE
379 - SAVE TRANSLATE to CSV and tab-delimited files
381 - VARIABLE ATTRIBUTES
383 * Changes to existing commands:
385 - AUTORECODE has a new GROUP subcommand.
387 - CROSSTABS has been re-implemented to fix numerous bugs.
389 - EXAMINE: /MISSING=LISTWISE is now the default.
391 - DO REPEAT command has been reimplemented. Now, when DO REPEAT
392 contains an INCLUDE or INSERT command, substitutions are not
393 applied to the included file.
395 - FILE HANDLE has a new ENDS subcommand to select CR or CRLF new-lines.
397 - HOST has been updated to use more modern syntax.
399 - Most commands that work with data files now support a new
402 - MISSING VALUES can now assign missing values to long string
405 - ONEWAY: the POSTHOC subcommand is now implemented.
407 - The following new subcommands to NPAR TESTS have been implemented:
408 COCHRAN, FRIEDMAN, JONCKHEERE-TERPSTRA, KENDALL, KRUSKAL-WALLIS, MANN-WHITNEY,
409 MCNEMAR, SIGN, WILCOXON, and RUNS
411 - SET and SHOW no longer have ENDCMD, NULLINE, PROMPT, CPROMPT, and
412 DPROMPT subcommands. The defaults are now fixed values.
414 - SHOW now has a JOURNAL subcommand, to show the location of the
417 - VALUE LABELS can now assign value labels to long string
420 * Other language changes:
422 - The new DATASET commands replace the "scratch file" PSPP
423 extension, which is no longer supported.
425 - Strings may now include arbitrary Unicode code points specified
426 in hexadecimal, using the syntax U'hhhh'. For example, Unicode
427 code point U+1D11E, the musical G clef character, may be
428 expressed as U'1D11E'.
430 See the "Tokens" section in the PSPP manual for more information.
432 - In previous versions of PSPP, in a string expressed in
433 hexadecimal with X'hh' syntax, the hexadecimal digits expressed
434 bytes in the locale encoding. In this version of PSPP, X'hh'
435 syntax always expresses bytes in UTF-8 encoding.
437 See the "Tokens" section in the PSPP manual for more information.
439 * PSPPIRE graphical user interface improvements:
441 - Added support for non-ASCII characters in strings, labels and
444 - A "Split Window" function is available, which makes it easier to
445 see different parts of a large data file.
447 - Data files can now be opened by specifing their name as the first
448 argument. This means that on a properly configured desktop, double
449 clicking on an icon will open the file.
451 - Foreign formats, such as Gnumeric, OpenDocument and CSV can be imported
452 via using an "intelligent" application assistant dialog.
456 - The new "cairo" output driver supports output in PostScript, PDF,
457 and SVG formats. Its functionality is a superset of that of the
458 "postscript" driver, which has been removed. You must have Cairo
459 and Pango installed to build the "cairo" driver.
461 - Charts are now produced with Cairo and Pango, instead of libplot.
462 Without them, the new graphing features will not work. If you do
463 not have Cairo and Pango installed, you must run `configure' with
466 - The plain text output driver now properly supports multibyte UTF-8
467 characters, including double-width characters and combining
470 - Output to OpenDocument format is now supported.
472 - The HTML output is much improved.
474 * The "pspp" program has a new option --batch (or -b) that selects
475 "batch" syntax mode. In previous versions of PSPP this syntax mode
476 was the default. Now a new "auto" syntax mode is the default. In
477 "auto" mode, PSPP interprets most syntax files correctly regardless
478 of their intended syntax mode.
480 See the "Syntax Variants" section in the PSPP manual for more
483 * The "pspp" program has a new option --syntax-encoding that
484 specifies the encoding for syntax files listed on the command line,
485 as well as the default encoding for syntax files included with
486 INCLUDE or INSERT. The default is to accept the system locale
487 encoding, UTF-8, UTF-16, or UTF-32, automatically detecting which
488 one the system file uses.
490 See the documentation for the INSERT command in the PSPP manual for
493 * Text data files that PRINT and WRITE creates now use the system
494 native line ends by default (CRLF on Windows, LF only elsewhere).
495 Use the new ENDS subcommand on FILE HANDLE to override the default.
497 * A new Perl module allows Perl programs to read and write PSPP
500 * A tutorial chapter has been added to the user manual.
502 Changes from 0.6.1 to 0.6.2:
506 - Dutch, thanks to Harry Thijssen.
508 - Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Michel Boaventura.
510 Thanks for translations are also due to the coordinators at
511 translationproject.org.
513 * Statistical bug fixes:
515 - REGRESSION: Report correct standard error of the estimate (bug
518 - T-TEST: Report correct significance of paired sample T-test in
519 the common case (bug #26936) and corner cases. Thanks to Mike
520 Griffiths and Matej Cepl for reporting these bugs.
522 * Build fixes and changes:
524 - Fix build with GTK+ 2.17.4 and later.
526 - Make running "make" after running "configure" with different
527 settings reliably rebuild version.c.
529 - Cygwin and MinGW build fixes.
531 - Fixes for building with recent gnulib.
533 - The Makefile now honors two new variables, PSPP_LDFLAGS and
534 PSPPIRE_LDFLAGS, that affect linking of the PSPP and PSPPIRE
535 binaries, respectively. This makes building easier for some
538 - Fixes for "configure --enable-relocatable" (bug #25508).
540 * Data file bug fixes and changes:
542 - Fix reading text data files that contain a mix of white space
543 and commas. Now "a ,b" is treated as two fields containing "a"
544 and "b"; previously it was treated as three, with an empty field
547 - Fix writing corrupted .sav files on Windows.
549 - Fix writing variable labels longer than 252 bytes to save files.
550 Thanks to Robert Westlund for reporting this bug.
552 - Fix writing corrupted .por files (bug #26034).
554 - Fix reading .por files whose initial lines are not padded out
555 with spaces as expected.
557 - PSPP will no longer issue warnings about some .sav file records
558 or values that it does not understand. These warnings were
559 harmless, but needlessly alarmed some users.
561 - Fix crash reading empty string fields from PostgreSQL databases.
563 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
565 - Users may now control precision of output statistics. Instead
566 of hard coding the width and decimals of output numbers, respect
567 the default format in most instances. Counts are now normally
568 displayed with the format of the weight variable, if any.
570 - Fix crash when an INSERT command specifies the name of a file
571 that does not exist (bug #24569).
573 - Fix crash when CROSSTABS specifies a long-string variable (bugs
576 - Fix crash drawing pie charts with many segments.
578 - Fix crash when NUMERIC specifies an invalid format.
580 * PSPPIRE bug fixes and changes:
582 - On Windows, write the output file to the user's home directory
583 instead of the current directory, to better match user
586 - Some data editor fixes.
590 - Fix typo in BINOMIAL section of user manual (bug #25892).
592 Changes from 0.6.0 to 0.6.1:
594 * Statistical bug fixes:
596 - Report correct standardized regression coefficients in linear
597 regression output (bug #23567).
599 * Bug fixes that affect PSPP and PSPPIRE:
601 - Avoid crash with pie charts (bug #24014).
603 - Don't append % to count totals (bug #24003).
605 - Don't crash on bad input (bug #24031).
607 - Don't crash if "end data." is not left aligned (bug #24115).
609 - Change default workspace value to 64 MB, to avoid unnecessary
610 disk accesses on modern machines.
614 - Add ".sav" or ".por" suffix to filename when saving with Save_As
617 - Make it possible to reopen the output window on Windows (bug
620 - A POSIX regular expression library is now included and used
621 automatically if the host does not have one or has one that is
624 * Build fixes and changes:
626 - Work around bug in GSL that prevented build with recent GCC
627 versions without manually adding -fgnu89-inline to CFLAGS.
629 - Also warn about missing prerequisites as we encounter them (bug
632 - Distribute necessary files to allow users working from the
633 distributed tarball to configure with --enable-gui-tools.
635 - Append $(EXEEXT_FOR_BUILD) to output file name when building
636 q2c, fixing build problems on Windows.
638 - GSL 1.8 or later is now required.
640 - Build errors with --enable-relocatable were fixed.
642 * The German translations were removed, since native German speakers
643 found them too poor to be useful.
645 Changes from 0.4.0 to 0.6.0:
647 * The PSPP license is now version 3 or later of the GNU General
648 Public License. Previously, it was version 2 or later.
650 * PSPP now has a graphical interface, called PSPPIRE. This
651 interface allows you to enter data and variable definitions
652 interactively. Commands may be executed in syntax form, or by
653 using the interactive dialog boxes available from the dropdown
656 * A few sample syntax files are now included in the `examples'
659 * Numerous major and minor bugs have been fixed.
663 * The INSTALL file now reflects the details of how to install
664 PSPP. It is a tailored version of the generic installation
665 instructions, instead of a verbatim copy.
667 * iconv, which is ordinarily installed as part of a Unix-like
668 system, is now required. If you don't have it already, you can
669 install GNU libiconv (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/).
671 * libxml2 and zlib are new optional dependencies. They are
672 required to use PSPP's support for reading Gnumeric files.
674 Statistical procedure changes:
676 * REGRESSION is a new procedure for fitting linear models to data
677 via least-squares estimation.
679 * NPAR TESTS is a new procedure for non-parametric tests. In this
680 release, it supports binomial and chi-square tests.
682 * RANK is a new procedure to rank variables. It supports numerous
685 * FREQUENCIES can now output histograms and pie charts. These
686 features were present in earlier releases, but not documented.
688 User interface changes:
690 * In many situations where PSPP once terminated with a fatal
691 error, PSPP now recovers and continues execution.
693 * PSPP is now able to start up and run even if it cannot find its
696 * Journaling of interactive commands to a disk file is now
697 implemented. By default, journaling is enabled, to a file named
698 `pspp.jnl' in the current directory. SET JOURNAL may be used to
701 * The use of `+' between syntax file names on the command line to
702 prevent the dictionary from being cleared between their
703 executions is no longer supported. All syntax files are now
704 executed as if `+' had been specified.
706 * The -d/--define and -u/--undef command line options are no
707 longer supported. Instead, use /usr/bin/env or shell primitives
708 to define or clear environment variables before invoking PSPP.
710 * If a syntax file named named `rc' is found in a configuration
711 directory (such as $HOME/.pspp), it is executed before any
712 syntax file specified on the command line. The -r or
713 --no-statrc command line option may be used to disable this
718 * Output configuration options have changed. Please refer to the
719 manual for a full description of the available options.
721 In consequence, you will need to reinstall your "devices" file.
722 "make install" will do this for you.
724 * Most error messages are now written to PSPP output files by
725 default. SET ERROR can be used to disable this behavior.
727 * When invoked interactively, PSPP now by default produces output
728 on the terminal, piping it through the "more" program.
729 Previously, by default output was written only to file
730 pspp.list. On most terminals, the page length used for output
731 automatically adapts to the terminal size, even if the terminal
736 - This driver now supports charts in output. Charts are written
737 as separate files that the main output file refers to. By
738 default, charts are written in PNG format to files named
739 pspp-1.png, pspp-2.png, and so on.
741 - Configurations are provided that use VT100 (and xterm)
742 line-drawing characters in tables. The option "-o list-vt100"
743 requests use of this device for output to pspp.list.
747 - The default paper size is now determined using the PAPERSIZE
748 environment variable, or the LC_PAPER locale category on
749 systems that support it. If these are not set, the default is
750 now A4, instead of US letter. To make US letter the default,
751 set PAPERSIZE to "letter" in your environment.
753 - Font metrics are now read from AFM files, instead of
754 Groff-format metrics files. PostScript fonts can now be
757 In consequence, you will need to install an AFM file for each
758 font used in PostScript output. "make install" will install
759 AFM files for the standard PostScript fonts, including the
760 ones that the PostScript driver uses by default.
762 - Standard paper sizes no longer need to be specified through a
763 configuration file. The "papersize" configuration file is no
764 longer needed, or supported.
766 - The PostScript prologue is no longer obtained from the
767 "ps-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file is
768 no longer needed, or supported.
772 - The HTML prologue is no longer obtained from the
773 "html-prologue" configuration file. This configuration file
774 is no longer needed, or supported.
776 Command language changes:
778 * The following commands are new:
780 - GET DATA, which currently supports reading Gnumeric files and
781 text data files. It will be extended later to read other
782 types of foreign data.
784 - CD, to change the current directory.
786 - INSERT, to execute a syntax file.
788 - DELETE VARIABLES, to remove variables from the active file
791 - ADD DOCUMENT, to add text to active file documents.
793 - CLOSE FILE HANDLE (a PSPP extension; see below).
795 - XEXPORT, a PSPP extension that is a transformation equivalent
798 * The following functions for transformation expressions are new:
800 - DATEDIFF, for computing the difference of two dates.
802 - DATESUM, for advancing a date by a specified duration.
804 - VALUELABEL, to obtain the value label for a value.
806 * PSPP now supports very long string variables (over 255 bytes
809 * MATCH FILES now supports the FIRST and LAST subcommands.
811 * Previous versions of PSPP prohibited using commands to both read and
812 write a single file at the same time. Now, PSPP allows this, and
813 the new version of the file atomically replaces the old version.
815 * The following commands are no longer available. They will be
816 re-implemented in a later release:
818 - CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
824 * The PROCESS IF command, which was deprecated, has been removed.
825 You may replace any usage of it by SELECT IF following
826 TEMPORARY, which has the same effect.
828 * The output format for variables created by VECTOR may now be
829 specified as part of the VECTOR syntax.
831 "Scratch files", a new PSPP extension:
833 A scratch file, like a system file, consists of a dictionary and
834 any number of cases. Small scratch files are stored in memory;
835 one that grows too large is written to disk. By default, any file
836 handle whose name begins with # is assumed to refer to a scratch
839 Scratch files can be used just about anywhere a system or portable
840 file can be used. Also, portable files are now allowed in most
841 places that system files were allowed in previous PSPP version.
843 A new CLOSE FILE HANDLE command allows the storage associated with
844 scratch files to be freed. It also allows file handles to be
845 reassigned to new files.
847 For more information on scratch files, refer to the "File Handles"
848 section in the PSPP manual. For specifics of what commands now
849 allow what kinds of files to be specified, refer to the
850 documentation on those particular commands.
854 * Binary formats and IBM/360 formats, including ASCII/EBCDIC
855 translation, are now supported. Use FILE HANDLE to specify the
856 format of these files.
858 * Little-endian, big-endian, and VAX-endian formats are now
859 supported for integer binary formats when reading and writing
860 data files. The new RIB and WIB subcommands on the SET command
861 control endianness of integer data. The default is the host's
864 * IEEE 754, VAX, and IBM hexadecimal formats are now supported for
865 floating point binary formats when reading and writing data
866 files. The new RRB and WRB subcommands on the SET command
867 control the floating point format. The default is the host's
868 native floating point format.
870 * DATA LIST now supports the SKIP subcommand, to skip records at
871 the beginning of a file. For compatibility, DATA LIST now
872 treats N format as F format for FREE and LIST format input.
874 * The SAVE and XSAVE commands now support the UNSELECTED,
875 PERMISSIONS, NAMES, and MAP subcommands.
877 * The EXPORT command has been re-implemented to obtain better
878 results. Support for the UNSELECTED, DIGITS, and TYPE
879 subcommands has been added.
881 * For compatibility, PRINT now inserts a space at the beginning of
882 every output line, even lines that would otherwise be blank,
883 when OUTFILE is specified. (The behavior of WRITE is
886 * For compatibility, PRINT EJECT now inserts the digit `1' at the
887 beginning of each line that should begin a new page.
889 * For compatibility, WRITE now outputs the system-missing value as
890 a field filled with spaces. Binary formats are an exception.
891 (The behavior of PRINT is unchanged.)
895 * Input and output format descriptions have been rewritten. They
896 now precisely describe what is accepted on input and written on
899 * The descriptions of the PSPP system and portable file formats
900 have been extensively revised and improved.
902 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.60 and
905 Changes from 0.3.0 to 0.4.0:
907 Changes in build dependencies:
909 * The GNU Scientific Library (libgsl), version 1.6 or later, is
912 * libplot from GNU plotutils is optional. Without it, the new
913 graphing features will not work. If you do not have it
914 installed, you must run `configure' with --without-libplot.
916 * libgmp2 is no longer a dependency.
918 Newly implemented commands and statistical features:
920 * EXAMINE, including its graphing features.
922 * FREQUENCIES now supports percentiles.
930 * SORT CASES now sorts stably, that is, two cases with equal sort
931 criteria will be in the same relative order before and after the
934 * T-TEST (re-written).
936 * DATE and USE. These commands are parsed but otherwise ignored,
937 to enhance compatibility with certain command files that invoke
940 * VARIABLE WIDTH, VARIABLE ALIGNMENT, and VARIABLE LEVEL. These
941 currently have no effect on PSPP output, but their values are
942 written to and read from system files and thus may affect
943 third-party software.
945 * SET EPOCH implemented.
947 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST now support arbitrary field
950 * FILE HANDLE now supports custom tab widths.
952 Long variable names (and other identifiers) are now supported. Up
953 to the first 64 bytes of each identifier is significant. PSPP now
954 reads and writes system files compatible with SPSS version 12.
956 New --algorithm and --syntax command line options allow
957 SPSS-compatible or enhanced modes to be selected.
959 Support for transformation expressions has been rewritten and
960 significantly improved. Refer to the manual for details.
962 Calculation of moments (mean, standard deviation, kurtosis,
963 skewness) has been rewritten and should now be more accurate. In
964 --algorithm=enhanced mode moments may be more accurate than SPSS in
967 Numerous bugs have been fixed, too many to mention here. Many new
968 tests have been added, leading to the discovery and fixing of many
971 The ASCII output driver can now squeeze multiple blank lines into
974 Much of the code has been rewritten and refactored. It is now much
977 The FILE TYPE and REPEATING DATA commands have been disabled for
978 this release because their implementations were deemed too buggy to
979 be useful. They will be fixed and replaced in a future release.
981 New pspp-mode for Emacs (in pspp-mode.el).
983 Added rudimentary command-line completion for interactive input.
985 lib/julcal and lib/dcdflib are no longer used, so they have been
988 For developers, the build system now requires Autoconf 2.58 and
989 Automake 1.7. The included gettext has been updated to version
992 Some reports state that Texinfo 4.8, the latest version, may be
993 necessary to successfully format the documentation on some systems.
995 Version 0.3.0 changes since 0.2.3:
999 * Using alphanumeric variables in functions under AGGREGATE
1002 * Under certain circumstances, the final case would be omitted
1003 from the results of an AGGREGATE operation. Fixed.
1005 * Undefined behavior was invoked by referencing a freed pointer
1006 under certain circumstances. Fixed.
1008 * A wrong record size was displayed when paging the active file to
1011 * Not having enough temporary space for sorting caused a core
1014 * Syntax errors in function descriptions on AGGREGATE caused core
1017 * A null pointer was dereferenced, causing a core dump, when
1018 PERCENTILES was specified on FREQUENCIES. This fixes the
1019 problem, but PSPP still doesn't calculate percentiles.
1021 * SORT always sorted in ascending order. Fixed.
1023 * Some minor memory leaks in the expression parser were removed.
1025 * Many assertions fixed for strict ANSI C compliance.
1029 * SET ECHO ON now implemented, but turned off by default.
1031 * PRINT specifier supported on END REPEAT.
1035 * System libgmp2 library is used if installed instead of
1036 unconditionally using the included libgmp2 subset.
1038 * Extensive code cleanup, which continues.
1040 * Added CORRELATIONS command parser, but not implemented.
1042 Version 0.2.3 changes since 0.2.2:
1046 * SPLIT FILE with a string variable caused a core dump. Fixed.
1048 * Nested INCLUDEs didn't work. Fixed.
1050 * The MATCH FILES procedure set the values of variables not present
1051 to 0. It should have been SYSMIS. This is now fixed.
1053 * The REMARK command was too aggressive about skipping lines. It
1054 didn't like being the last command in a file.
1056 * Comment parsing wasn't consistent with the rest of the code in its
1057 idea of where one command ends and another starts. This meant
1058 that sometimes commands would be mysteriously ignored. Thanks to
1059 Dr. Dirk Melcher <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1061 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
1062 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1063 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1065 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
1066 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
1067 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
1069 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
1070 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
1071 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1074 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
1075 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1078 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1079 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1081 * The TABLE subcommand on MATCH FILES worked only erratically at
1082 best. This fixes it. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1083 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1085 * VARIABLE LABELS rejected a slash before the first variable
1086 specification, contradicting the documentation. Thanks to Walter
1087 M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for reporting this bug.
1089 * Because of an incorrect optimization in memory allocation,
1090 CROSSTABS sometimes segfaulted when asked to output multiple
1091 tables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1094 * CROSSTABS didn't display value labels for column and row
1095 variables. Thanks to Walter M. Gray <graywm@northernc.on.ca> for
1098 * WRITE didn't write line ends. Fixed. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1099 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1101 * MATCH FILES corrupted memory and dumped core on some syntax
1104 * MATCH FILES should set numeric values not available to the
1105 system-missing value, not to 0. Thanks to Dr. Dirk Melcher
1106 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1108 * KEEP didn't work properly on the SAVE procedure. Fixed. Thanks
1109 to Ralf Geschke <ralf@kuerbis.org> for reporting this bug.
1113 * Some systems didn't like the way open_file was coded. Thanks to
1114 Hankin <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for pointing this out.
1116 * The SAVE procedure didn't save long string variables properly.
1117 Fixed by this patch. Thanks to Hankin
1118 <hankin@rogue.consultco.com> for this patch.
1120 * Minor documentation fixes for MATCH FILES.
1122 Version 0.2.2 changes since 0.2.1:
1126 * Fix behavior of PRINT SPACE for negative arguments.
1128 * Fix reading some unusual system files.
1130 * Fix LIST problems with very long variables. Thanks to Hankin
1131 <hankin@dunno.com> for this bug report.
1133 * Fix problems with some string format specifiers.
1135 * Fix use of $CASENUM in expressions. Thanks to Dirk Melcher
1136 <BZN-mdksh@t-online.de> for reporting this bug.
1138 * Additional DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST fixes. Thanks to
1139 Hankin <hankin@dunno.com> again on this one.
1141 * Sometimes you may encounter a PSPP script that has to be
1142 interpreted in interactive mode. Now you can use the -i flag to
1145 * Warnings for egcs 1.1.1 cleaned up. (However you'll get lots of
1146 `unused variable' warnings under gcc 2.7.2.3, fixing this will
1151 * The files in gmp need the internationalization directory in
1152 their include path. Thanks to OKUJI Yoshinori
1153 <okuji@kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp> for pointing this out.
1155 Version 0.2.1 changes since 0.2.0:
1159 * Remember to include examples/ directory in distribution :-)
1161 * Fixed gmp compile problems for some non-i386 architectures.
1162 Thanks to Hans Olav Eggestad <olav@jordforsk.nlh.no> and others
1165 * DATA LIST FREE and DATA LIST LIST parsing of input files is now
1166 matches the documented behavior exactly, and error messages are
1167 more helpful. Thanks to Mark H. Wood <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>.
1169 Version 0.2.0 changes since 0.1.0:
1171 Procedures now implemented:
1172 * CROSSTABS. Please see documentation for caveats.
1174 Transformations and utilities now implemented:
1177 * CLEAR TRANSFORMATIONS
1178 * DISPLAY (all subcommands).
1189 Support for input and output through pipes: "|command" and
1190 "command|" filenames; support for special filenames "-", "stdin",
1193 New command-line features:
1194 * New option --testing-mode: Invoke heuristics to assist testing.
1195 * New option --safer, -s: Don't allow certain unsafe operations.
1196 * New option --command=CMD, -c CMD: Perform literal command CMD.
1197 * rc file ~/.pspp/rc is executed before any other files.
1198 * Now multiple syntax files can be specified.
1200 Operator LAG is now implemented.
1202 Added missing FILE subcommand to REREAD.
1204 Table output manager completely rewritten.
1206 Device configuration file syntax changed. You will need to
1207 reinstall your `devices' file.
1209 New output driver for HTML.
1211 PostScript driver and prologue simplified.
1213 Many bugs fixed. General source-code cleanup.
1215 Added Texinfo documentation for:
1216 * PSPP system file format
1217 * PSPP portable file format
1218 * How to write input for q2c parser generator
1221 PSPP language is now fully documented. Please report any
1222 inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation.
1224 Changes for version 0.1.0:
1226 First public release. For changes from unreleased development
1227 versions, please see ONEWS.
1229 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1230 Copyright information:
1232 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
1233 copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided that
1234 the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, thus
1235 giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
1237 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions of this
1238 document, or of portions of it, under the above conditions,
1239 provided also that they carry prominent notices stating who last
1243 version-control: never