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Re: Windows PSPPIRE/PSPP is pretty wonky


From: Michał Dubrawski
Subject: Re: Windows PSPPIRE/PSPP is pretty wonky
Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 16:09:08 +0100

Dear Alan,

Although what you are saying are things that could be improved in PSPP you should remember that PSPP is still under development - it is not version 1.0.

Even in version 1.0 I believe there could be and probably will be things worth improving - recently I had SPSS version 22 installed on my computer in the office - first my colleagues from IT department installed SPSS itself, and then a very large file with bug fixes. Not long ago we had here on PSPP mailing list a large discussion about bugs in various versions of SPSS - I myself know person who found some mistakes in SPSS tables output (it was probably version 12, 13 or 15 then - sorry I don't remember) and after some time received bug fixes correcting this output.

And SPSS is commercial product, each version they distribute is considered to be complete and ready to be used.

PSPP is developed by people who do that by their goodwill. PSPP is not finished and sometimes we all find things that we want to do but it's not possible because these features are not yet implemented, but I really appreciate the work of PSPP developers and all the people supporting the project. With current PSPP I can do many things the SPSS-way even when I don't have access to SPSS, and some things are easier for me to be done that way rather than in R or recently in Python (although there are other data operations and analysis that are much easier for me to be done in R or Python).
 

Happy New Year to all of you :-)
Michał Dubrawski

2014-12-31 0:02 GMT+01:00 <address@hidden>:
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Today's Topics:

   1. Windows PSPPIRE/PSPP is pretty wonky (Alan Mead)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 16:58:48 -0600
From: Alan Mead <address@hidden>
To: "address@hidden" <address@hidden>
Subject: Windows PSPPIRE/PSPP is pretty wonky
Message-ID: <address@hidden>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"

John and Harry,

PSPPIRE.exe 0.8.4-g5ce6b1 (and the associated PSPP) is pretty wonky.
Paste doesn't work correctly (I believe that's a know issue?). To paste
syntax into the syntax window, I had to right-click and choose paste;
neither Control-v or Edit > Paste would paste the text.

And Run > Current line wasn't working (but now I cannot replicate it,
I'm guessing it has to do with where the cursor was rather than which
line of the syntax window was "shaded"). What was most annoying is that
by "not working" I mean that the output window would flash but there was
no additional output in the window and no warning or error.

And then look at the boxplot I got when I ran Robin's syntax on the
physio data (attached "boxplot.png")... I don't use examine and I don't
know what " /STATISTICS = EXTREME (3)" is meant to do, but I know what a
boxplot is and there shouldn't be values like 9999999 between 1200 and
200 on the y-axis.

Regarding the actual algorithm, the boxplot I get from SPSS is attached
as "boxplot2.png".  I think it's a lot more reasonable (albeit uglier).
The main difference is the SPSS boxplot had short whiskers while PSPP's
boxplot whiskers seems to include the entire range of the data
(including the outlier). In the physio dataset, apparently there are
some outliers like 30 mm for a human height.  That's the kind of thing
that boxplots are supposed to help you find.  Maybe that's a bug in PSPP
that the whisker length is just wrong?  Otherwise I think it would make
more sense to limit the whiskers to some reasonable value like 1.5 times
the inter-quartile range (or to the highest and lowest values that are
within 1.5 times the inter-quartile range).

-Alan




On 12/30/2014 4:13 PM, Alan Mead wrote:
> Robin,
>
> It looks like you are running PSPP directly.  Maybe the manual tells
> you to do so, but you actually want to run PSPPIRE, the GUI shell.
>
> When I install the latest 64-bit Windows PSPP from
> http://pspp.awardspace.com/ I can start PSPP(IRE) the same way I start
> all Windows 7 programs: Start > All programs > PSPP > PSPP
>
> PSPPIRE is also the default handler for .sav files, so if you navigate
> to the examples folder ("C:\Program Files\PSPP\share\pspp\examples" or
> Start > All Programs > PSPP > Examples) and double-click on
> phisiology.sav, it should bring up the PSPPIRE data window.  On that
> window, select File > New > Syntax and paste your syntax ("EXAMINE
> height weight BY sex /STATISTICS = EXTREME (3) /PLOT = BOXPLOT
> /COMPARE = GROUPS.") into that window.  Then select Run > All.
>
> The error about 'name' not being a variable is because name isn't a
> variable in the physio dataset. In PSPPIRE it's very easy to see what
> variables are n a dataset, especially using the "Variable View" tab of
> the data window.
>
> When I start PSPPIRE and paste your shortened command (and add a
> trailing period) I get boxplots (see the screenshot).
>
> -Alan
>
>
> On 12/30/2014 10:59 AM, Robin Reeves wrote:
>> I think I should have sent this to the pspp-users e-mail rather than
>> directly to Alan Mead. Aplogies.
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> From: address@hidden
>> To: address@hidden
>> Subject: Missing sub commands in PSPP
>> Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 16:53:29 +0000
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I have just joined the PSPP users mailing list and am trying to find
>> how to get boxplots.
>>
>> I came across your thread dated Mon, 29 Dec 2014 09:38:27 -0600 with
>> comments from Terence Palmer and John Darrington.
>>
>> I too am a novice user of PSPP. I only recently downloaded
>>
>>             release no. 0.8.4-g5ce6b1
>>
>>
>>  and I'm running it on Windows 7 on a 64 bit machine.
>>
>> I can't find how to do box plots in psppire so I've been trying to
>> use commands in the syntax window. I have been trying to do the
>> second example at the bottom of page 131 of the PSPP manual with the
>> "physiology.sav" data file.
>>
>> The file has definitely loaded after using the GET FILE
>> ="......physiology.sav". command.
>>
>> I've then typed
>> EXAMINE height weight BY sex /STATISTICS = EXTREME (3) /PLOT =
>> BOXPLOT /COMPARE = GROUPS /ID = name.
>>
>> The syntax editor told me there is no variable called 'name'.
>>
>> I shortened the command to
>> EXAMINE height weight BY sex /STATISTICS = EXTREME (3) /PLOT =
>> BOXPLOT /COMPARE = GROUPS
>>
>> and I get the results in 'Screenshot1' attached above but I can't see
>> any box plots. _Are they going somewhere other than the Syntax Window?_
>>
>> I've tried typing:
>> EXAMINE height weight BY sex /STATISTICS = DESCRIPTIVES /PLOT =
>> HISTOGRAM /NOTOTAL
>> to repeat the first example on page 131 of the manual but with the
>> "physiology.sav" data file but I still don't see a histogram.  I got
>> the results in 'Screenshot2' attached above.
>>
>> Please can you or anyone else help.
>>
>> Many thanks,
>> Robin Reeves
>>
>
> --
>
> Alan D. Mead, Ph.D.
> President, Talent Algorithms Inc.
>
> science + technology = better workers
>
> +815.588.3846 (Office)
> +267.334.4143 (Mobile)
>
> http://www.alanmead.org
>
> Announcing the Journal of Computerized Adaptive Testing (JCAT), a
> peer-reviewed electronic journal designed to advance the science and
> practice of computerized adaptive testing: http://www.iacat.org/jcat
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Pspp-users mailing list
> address@hidden
> https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/pspp-users

--

Alan D. Mead, Ph.D.
President, Talent Algorithms Inc.

science + technology = better workers

+815.588.3846 (Office)
+267.334.4143 (Mobile)

http://www.alanmead.org

Announcing the Journal of Computerized Adaptive Testing (JCAT), a
peer-reviewed electronic journal designed to advance the science and
practice of computerized adaptive testing: http://www.iacat.org/jcat

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