Re: next release soon?

[Jason Stover]

On Mon, Nov 12, 2007 at 07:53:49AM -0800, Ben Pfaff wrote:
> > I could make a case for replacing other software with pspp software in
> > at least one lab on campus if the gui had dialog boxes for RECODE,
> > CROSSTABS and FREQUENCIES, and some kind of dialog to import text
> > data.
> 
> By the latter, do you mean something that could have the
> functionality of DATA LIST (or a subset of it)?

Yes.

> ...should look at how spreadsheet programs usually do import of text
> data, and then try to do something at least as good.  Or, if SPSS
> has a good approach for this (haven't looked), we could try to
> imitate it.

SPSS has a "text import wizard" that walks the user through the
process of reading text data. It asks the user questions about
delimiters and whether variable names are at the top of the file,
etc., then runs DATA LIST to read the data. This is a good function to
have: Any frustration at the beginning of learning to use a new
program is likely to make a new user give up. Later frustrations,
after the user is a little familiar with the program, are less likely
to make a user quit altogether. Reading data is the first task of
any user, so it needs to be as easy as possible.

-Jason