Mac v16 problems

[D.R. Wahlgren]

Gang,
I haven't looked at the list very recently (are there archives posted
somewhere?) so I hope this hasn't already been covered.

I just installed the Mac v 16.0.1 version of SPSS.  It took me no
time at all to identify 3 problems that I hope others can shed some
light on:

1) when opening a .sav file created in SPSS Windows v11.5, I get a
warning that says the file "is written in a character encoding
(Windows-1252) incompatible with the current LOCALE setting. It may
not be readable. Consider changing LOCALE or setting UNICODE on.
(DATA 1721)"

The files open, but I worry about the integrity of the data, given
that message.  Any suggestions?  This LOCALE and UNICODE business is
completely unfamiliar to me.

2) when opening a .sys file (SPSS/PC+), it fails to open and
generates the following message: "specified file doesn't have the
appropriate contents."

I've had numerous small issues in the past when trying to open .sys
files in earlier Mac versions (namely, it would ruin data in 4 digit
numeric variables such that they read in as extremely tiny decimals,
in scientific notation; there was also another issue with the scaling
of variables, but I don't recall what that issue was).

Now it simply won't open a .sys file, period.

3) When I clicked the "Check for Updates" option in the menus, it
opened spss.com in my browser, but it opened to the SPSS for Windows
v16 page, and said that I am using v 16.0.0 of SPSS for Windows and
that my version is up to date.  Considering that I'm using SPSS for
Mac* v 16.0.1, this is of no help at all.


Any suggestions?


Even if patches are released to address the above issues, I won't be
able to get to them as long as the Check for Updates command is
jacked up like this...  I guess I'll be sticking with v13 a while.

thanks!
_d
--
Dennis R. Wahlgren, M.A.

Center for Behavioral Epidemiology and Community Health
San Diego State University
http://www.cbeach.org


"Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars--mere
globs of gas atoms.  Nothing is 'mere.'  I too can see the stars on a
desert night, and feel them.  But do I see less or more?"
--Richard Feynman

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[Peck, Jon]

see below

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of D.R. Wahlgren
Sent: Friday, December 14, 2007 5:43 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [SPSSX-L] Mac v16 problems

Gang,
I haven't looked at the list very recently (are there archives posted
somewhere?) so I hope this hasn't already been covered.

I just installed the Mac v 16.0.1 version of SPSS.  It took me no
time at all to identify 3 problems that I hope others can shed some
light on:

1) when opening a .sav file created in SPSS Windows v11.5, I get a
warning that says the file "is written in a character encoding
(Windows-1252) incompatible with the current LOCALE setting. It may
not be readable. Consider changing LOCALE or setting UNICODE on.
(DATA 1721)"

The files open, but I worry about the integrity of the data, given
that message.  Any suggestions?  This LOCALE and UNICODE business is
completely unfamiliar to me.
[>>>Peck, Jon]

First, if your data are all numeric or data and variable names and labels contain only unaccented roman characters, there is nothing to worry about despite the warning.

Until SPSS 16, characters in a sav file were just assumed to be encoded in a way that is consistent with the locale that SPSS was running in.  Most of the time that is true, and when it isn't, it is usually obvious, because the characters look wrong when displayed.  And since SPSS did not do anything with the bytes other than move them around (with the exception of string functions for changing the case and a few other places), the actual character encoding didn't matter much.  Since Mac and Windows do encode some characters differently, though, this problem has always existed in theory.

Now in SPSS 16, SPSS supports Unicode, and if you have a sav file from SPSS 15 or later, it knows how the characters are encoded.  It also does more active conversions between the frontend and backend or when moving between platforms.  So it warns  you when the encoding in the file is different from the one in the current SPSS locale.

This still makes no difference if your text consists only of plain unaccented roman characters.  They are represented the same way everywhere (outside the IBM mainframe).  But Mac and Windows encode other characters differently in some cases.  Generally if you set your SPSS locale to match the sav file (the SET LOCALE command), SPSS will figure everything out whether or not the sav file records the character encoding.

If you use the new Unicode mode for SPSS, which is off by default but can be turned on in Edit/Options, SPSS will transcode your sav file into Unicode, and then it will understand the text universally and across platforms, and the locale setting will not matter, but older versions of SPSS may not understand the sav file contents.  Again, this will not matter if the file contains only unaccented roman characters.

In Unicode mode, you can mix characters from any locale without problems (roman characters, Polish, Japanese, Korean, Hebrew, whatever).  There are some syntax incompatibilities with string functions such as substr that are byte oriented, because the bytes can be different in Unicode.  We provide some new char functions to bridge this, but you would have to change the syntax to use them.  Field width for strings may also change for Unicode,  because they are measured in bytes and Unicode text takes more bytes (SPSS automatically adjusts this.)  And Unicode sav files may not be understood by SPSS 15 and earlier (again, not an issue with unaccented roman characters).  That is why we did not make Unicode the default in SPSS 16, but if you need to handle world text, Unicode is a big win.

HTH,
Jon Peck

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For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
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[Weeks, Kyle]

D.R.
 
These types of issues should really be sent to Tech Support so you can get the correct answers.  That being said please see my responses below.
 
Regards.
 

Kyle Weeks, Ph.D.
Director of Product Management, SPSS Product Line

Product Management

SPSS Inc.

Phone: [phone] / Fax: [phone]

[hidden email]

www.spss.com
SPSS Inc. helps organizations turn data into insight through predictive analytics.

 


________________________________

From: SPSSX(r) Discussion on behalf of D.R. Wahlgren
Sent: Fri 12/14/2007 6:42 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Mac v16 problems



Gang,
I haven't looked at the list very recently (are there archives posted
somewhere?) so I hope this hasn't already been covered.

I just installed the Mac v 16.0.1 version of SPSS.  It took me no
time at all to identify 3 problems that I hope others can shed some
light on:

1) when opening a .sav file created in SPSS Windows v11.5, I get a
warning that says the file "is written in a character encoding
(Windows-1252) incompatible with the current LOCALE setting. It may
not be readable. Consider changing LOCALE or setting UNICODE on.
(DATA 1721)"

The files open, but I worry about the integrity of the data, given
that message.  Any suggestions?  This LOCALE and UNICODE business is
completely unfamiliar to me.

Kyle: This behavior is harmelss and now expected, as data are encoded differently on different platforms and languages.  However, the overlap for English Windows which is what you used for SPSS 11.5 and English Mac used in SPSS 16 for Mac should cause no problems.  To learn more about Unicode and codepage see www.unicode.org.


2) when opening a .sys file (SPSS/PC+), it fails to open and
generates the following message: "specified file doesn't have the
appropriate contents."

I've had numerous small issues in the past when trying to open .sys
files in earlier Mac versions (namely, it would ruin data in 4 digit
numeric variables such that they read in as extremely tiny decimals,
in scientific notation; there was also another issue with the scaling
of variables, but I don't recall what that issue was).

Now it simply won't open a .sys file, period.

Kyle: Follow-up with tech support on this issue.  However, these should really be saved to another file format, as this file format is very old and no longer actively developed.

3) When I clicked the "Check for Updates" option in the menus, it
opened spss.com in my browser, but it opened to the SPSS for Windows
v16 page, and said that I am using v 16.0.0 of SPSS for Windows and
that my version is up to date.  Considering that I'm using SPSS for
Mac* v 16.0.1, this is of no help at all.

Kyle: This is just a typo. Sorry for the confusion.


Any suggestions?


Even if patches are released to address the above issues, I won't be
able to get to them as long as the Check for Updates command is
jacked up like this...  I guess I'll be sticking with v13 a while.

thanks!
_d
--
Dennis R. Wahlgren, M.A.

Center for Behavioral Epidemiology and Community Health
San Diego State University
http://www.cbeach.org <http://www.cbeach.org/>


"Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars--mere
globs of gas atoms.  Nothing is 'mere.'  I too can see the stars on a
desert night, and feel them.  But do I see less or more?"
--Richard Feynman

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

====================To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD