which version?

[Cora Price]

Our tech admin will soon have to renew our SPSS licenses and I’m looking for advice about which version he should go with. I am still on version 15 because the switch time for that happened near the last year of a big, longitudinal research project and I did not want to have to re-write my syntax to accommodate an update (again). Several others here are using version 16, a few use 17 – but they are not habitual syntax users like I am.  They are happy with the drop-downs no matter what the version. We typically have small research projects. I use SPSS with Excel and Access for tracking subjects and assessments, data entry, data cleaning, scoring protocols, that sort of stuff – plus restructuring data files, combining across studies, and making special needs data files.

 

 The university won’t be supporting version 15 licenses anymore, so the choices now include – moving everyone to version 18 or staying at 16 or 17 – and I would update too. What version would you recommend to my tech guy? And why?

 

Thanks much,

Cora Price

Research Associate

Early Intervention Research Institute

6580 Old Main Hill

Logan, UT  84322-6580

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[Eric Langston]

Cora-

 

I would recommend v18.  While the output still isn’t as snappy as v15 and older, it is world’s better than v16.

 

One area that bothered me a lot was that there was a bug when copying certain variables from SPSS to Excel to SPSS – for example, if you wanted to change the names of the variables in Excel rather than SPSS.  That was present in v16 and v17, but fixed in v18.

 

Overall, I would say that, compared to v18, v16 is very sluggish and v17 is somewhat sluggish.  There are more bugs out of the system as the versions progress, but if most of the people are more vanilla users, then they likely would never have encountered the bugs.  So, for you, I would certainly say v18.  For the rest of your office … it’s a cost-benefit where the primary benefit I think they will notice is that it “feels snappier”.

 

HTH,

-Eric

 

From: Cora Price [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Monday, November 23, 2009 4:05 PM
Subject: which version?

 

Our tech admin will soon have to renew our SPSS licenses and I’m looking for advice about which version he should go with. I am still on version 15 because the switch time for that happened near the last year of a big, longitudinal research project and I did not want to have to re-write my syntax to accommodate an update (again). Several others here are using version 16, a few use 17 – but they are not habitual syntax users like I am.  They are happy with the drop-downs no matter what the version. We typically have small research projects. I use SPSS with Excel and Access for tracking subjects and assessments, data entry, data cleaning, scoring protocols, that sort of stuff – plus restructuring data files, combining across studies, and making special needs data files.

 

 The university won’t be supporting version 15 licenses anymore, so the choices now include – moving everyone to version 18 or staying at 16 or 17 – and I would update too. What version would you recommend to my tech guy? And why?

 

Thanks much,

Cora Price

Research Associate

Early Intervention Research Institute

6580 Old Main Hill

Logan, UT  84322-6580

--
General Disclaimer:
This email and any attached files are confidential and intended solely for the intended recipient(s). If you are not the named recipient you should not read, distribute, copy or alter this email. Any views or opinions expressed in this email are those of the author and do not represent those of the Early Intervention Research Institute. Warning: Although precautions have been taken to make sure no viruses are present in this email, the organization cannot accept responsibility for any loss or damage that arise from the use of this email or attachments.