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| From: | Claire de Koker |
| Subject: | Re: PSPP help |
| Date: | Tue, 23 Feb 2016 17:53:31 +0200 |
Claire,
You should reply to the list so that you avail yourself of the list's collective wisdom.
I would go ahead and use the latest version even though it has this scary message. IIRC, the reason that the scary message is not shown in the November 2015 version is just that they added it since then.
Unfortunately (I guess) there is no official PSPP for Windows. Official PSPP releases are as (uncompiled) software and the developers all use Linux (AFAIK) and even the windows version is (cross)compiled on Linux. So, what happens is that the bright guy (Harry Thijssen) who controls pspp.awardspace.com makes Windows versions of PSPP available periodically. He always uses the latest version and so Windows users see both the latest features and bug fixes, but also sometimes new bugs (or new bugs that occur only in Windows).
I don't know if that scary message is conveying the right message. PSPP does have a set of automated regression tests... I don't know if they are run (Harry?) but those wouldn't necessarily catch all bugs and it is true that no human testing occurs before the new version is made available (unless Harry does some informal testing himself). What would be ideal, in my opinion, would be if some Windows users took it upon themselves to vet each version as Harry creates it so that we had a process to remove this (true) message about "not tested" from a release. So far, that effort has not congealed.
-Alan
On 2/23/2016 9:34 AM, Claire de Koker wrote:
Hi Alan
thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I just tried the method of 'enter location' as you explained and it worked! As long as I can save in some way and can find saved files then thats fine - I've only got (hopefully) a small amount of stats to do.
One of the reasons I uninstalled the latest version is that it says "unreleased test software, not for production use" at the very top bar - I'm not sure if this means anything or not but the older version I downloaded doesnt have anything like that at the top. I'm not incredibly knowledgable in IT terms so this is perhaps a red herring!
Thanks for your support and speedy reply!
Claire
On 23 February 2016 at 17:23, Alan Mead <address@hidden> wrote:
Claire,
When you when say:
I try to save the data file under 'PSPP' it comes up with an error message saying 'permission denied'
that sounds like you are trying to save the files under c:\program files\pspp and that isn't a good place to save files and Windows will prevent you from doing so unless you are an administrator. Try saving in your "My Documents" folder.
But the other possibility is that this is a bug that the developers have been working on. I'm sorry I don't recall what work-around exists, but hopefully one of them will reply. I think the bug was related to having either spaces or non-ASCII characters in the path and so you might try saving in a place that doesn't have those problems (e.g., "c:\pspp_files" which you would need to have administrator's rights, or possible to a thumb drive mounted as "E:\").
About the folders not being seen, I don't know how the Windows version of PSPP picks up folders but I have the same problem. There is a slightly awkward work-around (maybe someone can supply a better one). On my version of PSPP I have a choice on the left sidebar of the "Open" dialog called "Enter Location" which can open any location. So, you just need to enter the location for One Drive. Here's my shortcut for figuring out what the destination is: I go to Windows explorer (i.e., the way you normally look at files in Windows) and open the drive so I can see the files. Then I click in the address bar at the top. Before I click into the bar, it says something like "(folder icon) > amead > Google Drive" but after you click there, the location (e.g., "C:\Users\amead\Google Drive") is displayed and can be copied-and-pasted it into the "Enter Location" field in PSPP. In this way, I can open my Google Drive, even though it's not shown initially.
These steps work in Windows 7, I assume something like this is possible in the desktop mode of Windows 8 and 10. If not, you could try "C:\Users" into "Enter Location" and then double-click on your username and all your special drives should be shown.
BTW, I'm using 0.9.0-g3a3d58 and it works fine but I would generally try the latest version because they tend to have the latest bug fixes, which are often annoyances Windows users encounter (because they get the latest development versions).
I hope this helps.
-Alan
On 2/23/2016 8:44 AM, Claire de Koker wrote:
Hi there
I am struggling to start using PSPP and had a couple of questions which the manual and the FAQ online have not been able to answer.
I initially downloaded the latest version (I think from 29-01-2016) and subsequently uninstalled and then installed an earlier version, from Nov 2015 (0.85).
My biggest difficulty is that I cannot save a data file anywhere. When I click on save as, a window opens with the different folders available. (1) I can't see all folders e.g. our Onedrive or personal folders. (2) when I try to save the data file under 'PSPP' it comes up with an error message saying 'permission denied' or something similar. (3) I cant create a folder either as it also comes up with a message saying 'permission denied' or something similar.
Are you able to help?
Many thanksClaire
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-- 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 I've... seen things you people wouldn't believe... functions on fire in a copy of Orion. I watched C-Sharp glitter in the dark near a programmable gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like Ruby... on... Rails... Time for Pi. --"The Register" user Alister, applying the famous "Blade Runner" speech to software development
-- 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 I've... seen things you people wouldn't believe... functions on fire in a copy of Orion. I watched C-Sharp glitter in the dark near a programmable gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like Ruby... on... Rails... Time for Pi. --"The Register" user Alister, applying the famous "Blade Runner" speech to software development
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