Re: pspp 0.04, users, datafile

[Jaap-Andre de Hoop]

> > Road map on what functionality are we concentrating in the near future
> > (system file that now is comparable with spss 6?, addition with
> > variable width commando (spss10?))
>
> I'm not sure what you mean regarding system files.  As far as I
> know, we're compatible with all SPSS system files, excluding SPSS
> 12 system files with long file names.  I would like to add
> support for those, too.
>
> What do you mean by "addition with variable width commando"?
It's is possible to read pspp systemfiles to all spss versions. However in 
newer versions of spss you can set the width of the cells in the 
data-editor (gui) by using the commando: variable witdh varname (n). That 
is very usefull for long characterdata. For instance if you define a 
variable with format varname (a255). Spss shows only this variable on the 
screen. By setting variable width you can limit the number of characters to 
display (in the data-editor (say excelscreen). Also in spss version 13 the 
limitations of variables and value labels has been extended (a lot), but I 
don't know what this means for the backward compatability (yet), spss has 
not been released in Holland yet. I think this last extension would be even 
more usefull. But is also more difficult to incorporate...

Jaap-Andre