Re: pspp-dev Digest, Vol 209, Issue 4

[Ben Pfaff]

PSPP does not have a Discord, but there is, or was, an IRC channel.
John, is it still active? It was on freenode, but most free software
projects have migrated away from freenode.

On Thu, Mar 24, 2022 at 9:31 AM Elias Tsolis <estatisticseu@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Is there discord channel?
>
> Many software devs using it for faster communication!
>
> sincerely,
>
> Elias
>
> On 24/3/22 5:18 pm, Ben Pfaff wrote:
> > If you would like to translate the manual to Greek, you are welcome to
> > do so, but it is a big job.
> >
> > Short of that, it would be very helpful if you spot something in the
> > manual that is not as helpful as it could be, and suggest
> > improvements. I know that, for example, most of the commands in the
> > manual do not include examples. If you wanted to contribute examples,
> > I think that users could find that helpful.
> >
> > On Thu, Mar 24, 2022 at 1:02 AM Elias Tsolis <estatisticseu@gmail.com> 
> > wrote:
> >> I can translate it in greek if you want.
> >> Aldo i purpose to adf some examples for syntax.
> >> Pkease tell me what to do.
> >>
> >> On Wednesday, March 23, 2022, <pspp-dev-request@gnu.org> wrote:
> >>> Send pspp-dev mailing list submissions to
> >>>          pspp-dev@gnu.org
> >>>
> >>> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
> >>>          https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/pspp-dev
> >>> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
> >>>          pspp-dev-request@gnu.org
> >>>
> >>> You can reach the person managing the list at
> >>>          pspp-dev-owner@gnu.org
> >>>
> >>> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> >>> than "Re: Contents of pspp-dev digest..."
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Today's Topics:
> >>>
> >>>     1. Re: Your automagic screenshots! (Ben Pfaff)
> >>>     2. Re: Your automagic screenshots! (John Darrington)
> >>>     3. Re: Your automagic screenshots! (Ben Pfaff)
> >>>     4. Re: Your automagic screenshots! (Alan Mead)
> >>>     5. Re: Your automagic screenshots! (Ben Pfaff)
> >>>     6. Re: Your automagic screenshots!  (Friedrich Beckmann)
> >>>     7. Re: Your automagic screenshots! (John Darrington)
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> Message: 1
> >>> Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2022 09:20:50 -0700
> >>> From: Ben Pfaff <blp@cs.stanford.edu>
> >>> To: Friedrich Beckmann <friedrich.beckmann@gmx.de>
> >>> Cc: John Darrington <john@darrington.wattle.id.au>,  PSPP Development
> >>>          Mailing List <pspp-dev@gnu.org>
> >>> Subject: Re: Your automagic screenshots!
> >>> Message-ID:
> >>>          
> >>> <CAA_G9+h5bPG70rk_5CT9vmLeJtrJdcrJQs13Fws0fSSu-9GXKA@mail.gmail.com>
> >>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
> >>>
> >>> We've had documentation in French and Polish contributed by users
> >>> before. We linked to it from the FAQ. It seems that those links are
> >>> dead now, though.
> >>>
> >>> It would be great to get documentation contributions that we can
> >>> include in the PSPP manual.
> >>>
> >>> On Tue, Mar 22, 2022 at 2:46 AM Friedrich Beckmann
> >>> <friedrich.beckmann@gmx.de> wrote:
> >>>> Hi John,
> >>>>
> >>>> i just had a look at your automagic screenshots that you take for the 
> >>>> documentation. Very nice. This Nina who asked on the mailing list
> >>>>
> >>>> https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/pspp-users/2022-03/msg00031.html
> >>>>
> >>>> how to import from Excel mentioned that it would be nice to have a 
> >>>> description for this in the manual. I wanted to propose her that she 
> >>>> could
> >>>> make such a manual which would currently mean to write the texi code 
> >>>> which would require to have a build system running to see the rendered 
> >>>> pages. Automagic screenshots would be even more advanced.
> >>>>
> >>>> Did you ever propose users just to make some kind of handcrafted 
> >>>> tutorial or documentation, provide it in pdf under some CC license and 
> >>>> we would publish it on the gnu website?
> >>>>
> >>>> Cheers
> >>>>
> >>>> Fritz
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> Message: 2
> >>> Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2022 19:23:57 +0100
> >>> From: John Darrington <john@darrington.wattle.id.au>
> >>> To: Friedrich Beckmann <friedrich.beckmann@gmx.de>
> >>> Cc: John Darrington <john@darrington.wattle.id.au>, PSPP Development
> >>>          Mailing List <pspp-dev@gnu.org>
> >>> Subject: Re: Your automagic screenshots!
> >>> Message-ID: <YjoUPU8v7I56GDJ0@jocasta.intra>
> >>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> >>>
> >>> So far as I'm aware, there's no way of importing directly from excel.  
> >>> You would
> >>> first have to convert the excel file to something else like gnumeric or 
> >>> opendocument
> >>> format.
> >>>
> >>> J'
> >>>
> >>> On Tue, Mar 22, 2022 at 10:45:32AM +0100, Friedrich Beckmann wrote:
> >>>       Hi John,
> >>>
> >>>       i just had a look at your automagic screenshots that you take for 
> >>> the documentation. Very nice. This Nina who asked on the mailing list
> >>>
> >>>       https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/pspp-users/2022-03/msg00031.html 
> >>> <https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/pspp-users/2022-03/msg00031.html>
> >>>
> >>>       how to import from Excel mentioned that it would be nice to have a 
> >>> description for this in the manual. I wanted to propose her that she could
> >>>       make such a manual which would currently mean to write the texi 
> >>> code which would require to have a build system running to see the 
> >>> rendered pages. Automagic screenshots would be even more advanced.
> >>>
> >>>       Did you ever propose users just to make some kind of handcrafted 
> >>> tutorial or documentation, provide it in pdf under some CC license and we 
> >>> would publish it on the gnu website?
> >>>
> >>>       Cheers
> >>>
> >>>       Fritz
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> Message: 3
> >>> Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2022 11:29:29 -0700
> >>> From: Ben Pfaff <blp@cs.stanford.edu>
> >>> To: John Darrington <john@darrington.wattle.id.au>
> >>> Cc: Friedrich Beckmann <friedrich.beckmann@gmx.de>,  PSPP Development
> >>>          Mailing List <pspp-dev@gnu.org>
> >>> Subject: Re: Your automagic screenshots!
> >>> Message-ID:
> >>>          
> >>> <CAA_G9+hL=QTvRCqe=WnGx5oSuo9+fXGDhwmszS0Y1aP2TLS8cQ@mail.gmail.com>
> >>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
> >>>
> >>> It's an extraordinarily common feature request, so if there's a
> >>> practical way to support direct import then we should consider it.
> >>>
> >>> On Tue, Mar 22, 2022 at 11:26 AM John Darrington
> >>> <john@darrington.wattle.id.au> wrote:
> >>>> So far as I'm aware, there's no way of importing directly from excel.  
> >>>> You would
> >>>> first have to convert the excel file to something else like gnumeric or 
> >>>> opendocument
> >>>> format.
> >>>>
> >>>> J'
> >>>>
> >>>> On Tue, Mar 22, 2022 at 10:45:32AM +0100, Friedrich Beckmann wrote:
> >>>>       Hi John,
> >>>>
> >>>>       i just had a look at your automagic screenshots that you take for 
> >>>> the documentation. Very nice. This Nina who asked on the mailing list
> >>>>
> >>>>       
> >>>> https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/pspp-users/2022-03/msg00031.html 
> >>>> <https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/pspp-users/2022-03/msg00031.html>
> >>>>
> >>>>       how to import from Excel mentioned that it would be nice to have a 
> >>>> description for this in the manual. I wanted to propose her that she 
> >>>> could
> >>>>       make such a manual which would currently mean to write the texi 
> >>>> code which would require to have a build system running to see the 
> >>>> rendered pages. Automagic screenshots would be even more advanced.
> >>>>
> >>>>       Did you ever propose users just to make some kind of handcrafted 
> >>>> tutorial or documentation, provide it in pdf under some CC license and 
> >>>> we would publish it on the gnu website?
> >>>>
> >>>>       Cheers
> >>>>
> >>>>       Fritz
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> Message: 4
> >>> Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2022 13:40:57 -0500
> >>> From: Alan Mead <amead2@alanmead.org>
> >>> To: pspp-dev@gnu.org
> >>> Subject: Re: Your automagic screenshots!
> >>> Message-ID: <e3ca7111-8079-36b1-66b2-462308d5b24f@alanmead.org>
> >>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
> >>>
> >>> You are probably aware, but the XLSX format used in recent versions of
> >>> Excel is significantly more accessible (it's a ZIP file containing XML
> >>> and similar data) than the older XLS format.
> >>>
> >>> Also, it's fairly easy to open an XLS/XLSX file in LibreOffice and save
> >>> it as CSV, but you can also use LO in a batch mode (Windows/DOS example):
> >>>
> >>> "C:\Program Files\LibreOffice\program\scalc.exe" --convert-to csv
> >>> "excel_file.xls"
> >>>
> >>> produces "excel_file.csv" in CSV format.
> >>>
> >>> -Alan
> >>>
> >>> On 3/22/2022 1:29 PM, Ben Pfaff wrote:
> >>>> It's an extraordinarily common feature request, so if there's a
> >>>> practical way to support direct import then we should consider it.
> >>>>
> >>>> On Tue, Mar 22, 2022 at 11:26 AM John Darrington
> >>>> <john@darrington.wattle.id.au> wrote:
> >>>>> So far as I'm aware, there's no way of importing directly from excel.  
> >>>>> You would
> >>>>> first have to convert the excel file to something else like gnumeric or 
> >>>>> opendocument
> >>>>> format.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> J'
> >>>>>
> >>>>> On Tue, Mar 22, 2022 at 10:45:32AM +0100, Friedrich Beckmann wrote:
> >>>>>        Hi John,
> >>>>>
> >>>>>        i just had a look at your automagic screenshots that you take 
> >>>>> for the documentation. Very nice. This Nina who asked on the mailing 
> >>>>> list
> >>>>>
> >>>>>        
> >>>>> https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/pspp-users/2022-03/msg00031.html 
> >>>>> <https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/pspp-users/2022-03/msg00031.html>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>        how to import from Excel mentioned that it would be nice to have 
> >>>>> a description for this in the manual. I wanted to propose her that she 
> >>>>> could
> >>>>>        make such a manual which would currently mean to write the texi 
> >>>>> code which would require to have a build system running to see the 
> >>>>> rendered pages. Automagic screenshots would be even more advanced.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>        Did you ever propose users just to make some kind of handcrafted 
> >>>>> tutorial or documentation, provide it in pdf under some CC license and 
> >>>>> we would publish it on the gnu website?
> >>>>>
> >>>>>        Cheers
> >>>>>
> >>>>>        Fritz
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> Message: 5
> >>> Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2022 11:47:15 -0700
> >>> From: Ben Pfaff <blp@cs.stanford.edu>
> >>> To: Alan Mead <amead2@alanmead.org>
> >>> Cc: PSPP Development Mailing List <pspp-dev@gnu.org>
> >>> Subject: Re: Your automagic screenshots!
> >>> Message-ID:
> >>>          
> >>> <CAA_G9+hvyXcOAazgY6qr7RV+-Zv01bfwW9qJP=jO2vRyEAEK2g@mail.gmail.com>
> >>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
> >>>
> >>> I followed the saga of standardizing the XLSX format in some detail
> >>> when it was going on 10 or so years ago. At least at the time, it was
> >>> said that it would take a lot of work for a program to read it,
> >>> because (for example) a program that read it would need to be able to
> >>> implement recalculation, including all the formulas and functions,
> >>> since the files didn't necessarily include the pre calculated values.
> >>> This suggests to me that, if PSPP were to be able to read these files
> >>> directly, then we would need to use a third-party library or program
> >>> to do it with a reasonable amount of code.
> >>>
> >>> Maybe we should add instructions for conversion to the FAQ or the
> >>> manual. The batch mode instructions look helpful to me.
> >>>
> >>> On Tue, Mar 22, 2022 at 11:41 AM Alan Mead <amead2@alanmead.org> wrote:
> >>>> You are probably aware, but the XLSX format used in recent versions of
> >>>> Excel is significantly more accessible (it's a ZIP file containing XML
> >>>> and similar data) than the older XLS format.
> >>>>
> >>>> Also, it's fairly easy to open an XLS/XLSX file in LibreOffice and save
> >>>> it as CSV, but you can also use LO in a batch mode (Windows/DOS example):
> >>>>
> >>>> "C:\Program Files\LibreOffice\program\scalc.exe" --convert-to csv
> >>>> "excel_file.xls"
> >>>>
> >>>> produces "excel_file.csv" in CSV format.
> >>>>
> >>>> -Alan
> >>>>
> >>>> On 3/22/2022 1:29 PM, Ben Pfaff wrote:
> >>>>> It's an extraordinarily common feature request, so if there's a
> >>>>> practical way to support direct import then we should consider it.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> On Tue, Mar 22, 2022 at 11:26 AM John Darrington
> >>>>> <john@darrington.wattle.id.au> wrote:
> >>>>>> So far as I'm aware, there's no way of importing directly from excel.  
> >>>>>> You would
> >>>>>> first have to convert the excel file to something else like gnumeric 
> >>>>>> or opendocument
> >>>>>> format.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> J'
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> On Tue, Mar 22, 2022 at 10:45:32AM +0100, Friedrich Beckmann wrote:
> >>>>>>        Hi John,
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>        i just had a look at your automagic screenshots that you take 
> >>>>>> for the documentation. Very nice. This Nina who asked on the mailing 
> >>>>>> list
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>        
> >>>>>> https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/pspp-users/2022-03/msg00031.html 
> >>>>>> <https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/pspp-users/2022-03/msg00031.html>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>        how to import from Excel mentioned that it would be nice to 
> >>>>>> have a description for this in the manual. I wanted to propose her 
> >>>>>> that she could
> >>>>>>        make such a manual which would currently mean to write the texi 
> >>>>>> code which would require to have a build system running to see the 
> >>>>>> rendered pages. Automagic screenshots would be even more advanced.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>        Did you ever propose users just to make some kind of 
> >>>>>> handcrafted tutorial or documentation, provide it in pdf under some CC 
> >>>>>> license and we would publish it on the gnu website?
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>        Cheers
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>        Fritz
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> Message: 6
> >>> Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2022 06:25:52 +0100
> >>> From: Friedrich Beckmann <friedrich.beckmann@gmx.de>
> >>> To: Ben Pfaff <blp@cs.stanford.edu>
> >>> Cc: Alan Mead <amead2@alanmead.org>, PSPP Development Mailing List
> >>>          <pspp-dev@gnu.org>
> >>> Subject: Re: Your automagic screenshots!
> >>> Message-ID: <BC4FA759-8BCB-4EE2-B825-C5F4BA595070@gmx.de>
> >>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> I answered her in the mailing list to export from excel to csv and to 
> >>> import from csv to pspp. That seemed to be sufficient. I was more 
> >>> wondering how to engage people who probably are not in the position to 
> >>> install the build environment to render the documentation.
> >>>
> >>> Friedrich
> >>>
> >>>> Am 23.03.2022 um 04:59 schrieb Ben Pfaff <blp@cs.stanford.edu>:
> >>>>
> >>>> Maybe we should add instructions for conversion to the FAQ or the
> >>>> manual. The batch mode instructions look helpful to me.
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> Message: 7
> >>> Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2022 10:29:39 +0100
> >>> From: John Darrington <john@darrington.wattle.id.au>
> >>> To: Friedrich Beckmann <friedrich.beckmann@gmx.de>
> >>> Cc: Ben Pfaff <blp@cs.stanford.edu>, PSPP Development Mailing List
> >>>          <pspp-dev@gnu.org>
> >>> Subject: Re: Your automagic screenshots!
> >>> Message-ID: <YjrogwohhDQ3vxla@jocasta.intra>
> >>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> >>>
> >>> The documentation including screenshots are included in the manual.
> >>> If I recall correctly this includes the Windoze builds last time I
> >>> checked.
> >>>
> >>> Regards,
> >>>
> >>> John
> >>>
> >>> On Wed, Mar 23, 2022 at 06:25:52AM +0100, Friedrich Beckmann wrote:
> >>>
> >>>       I answered her in the mailing list to export from excel to csv and 
> >>> to import from csv to pspp. That seemed to be sufficient. I was more 
> >>> wondering how to engage people who probably are not in the position to 
> >>> install the build environment to render the documentation.
> >>>
> >>>       Friedrich
> >>>
> >>>       > Am 23.03.2022 um 04:59 schrieb Ben Pfaff <blp@cs.stanford.edu>:
> >>>       >
> >>>       > Maybe we should add instructions for conversion to the FAQ or the
> >>>       > manual. The batch mode instructions look helpful to me.
> >>>       >
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> Subject: Digest Footer
> >>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> pspp-dev mailing list
> >>> pspp-dev@gnu.org
> >>> https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/pspp-dev
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> End of pspp-dev Digest, Vol 209, Issue 4
> >>> ****************************************