Date:         Thu, 18 Jan 2007 15:20:25 -0500
Reply-To:     Art@DrKendall.org
Sender:       "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Art Kendall <Art@DRKENDALL.ORG>
Organization: Social Research Consultants
Subject:      Re: SPSS output - Versions 6 -> 13 or 14
In-Reply-To:  <000e01c73b38$9c471520$2345cd80@ssw.buffalo.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed

I have used 2 workarounds.
1) using <edit> <options> <viewer> first set only log, warnings,  and
notes to  <shown> everything else to <hidden> and running the syntax.
this provides a smaller output file.
after that,  set all all options to <shown> and run again.

or
2) using <edit> <options> <viewer> set all all options to <shown> before
running the syntax.  Then  in old versions to <file> <print> to
CutePDF.  In newer versions to <file> <export ><pdf>).

Art Kendall
Social Research Consultants

Gene Maguin wrote:

>I've been resisting this for a while (and maybe I should have continued to
>do so) but I would like to expand on this part of Dennis' reply.
>
>
>
>>>One key advantage of v6 ASCII text output was the ability to quickly
>>>
>>>
>search the output of a long complex job with many steps for "ERROR" and
>"WARNING".  Some errors can be quite hard to find in the output of later
>versions, especially given the difficulty the viewer has with long text
>logs.
>
>I've noticed that while errors appear in the journal file at least some
>warnings do not. An example, I think, is this. Suppose variable name 'xxx'
>does not exist, then
>
>Frequencies xxx.
>
>Generates a warning that appears as an identified element in the whatever
>the thing on the lefthand pane of the output file is called but does not
>appear in the log file.
>
>Conversely, the statement
>
>If (xxx eq 9) yyy=8.
>
>Will cause an error listing that appears in a text block of the output and
>in the journal file but not in the lefthand thing in the output window.
>
>Stated tactfully, I think this could be improved greatly by doing two
>things.
>1) printing all warning and errors in the journal file.
>2) making error messages appear in the lefthand thing of the output window
>as its own element and marked in red or some other distinctive and unique
>color and labeled as such.
>
>So why do this. In production mode jobs or in in interactive jobs that have
>been 'completely' debugged being able to search for either 'error' or
>'warning' in the journal is very useful. In interactive mode, having errors
>identified as such (as warnings are) would be a very helpful visual marker.
>
>While I can't believe that this hasn't been suggested before, I'm curious as
>to why spss has never seen fit to fix this (especially the logging of
>warnings in the journal file).
>
>Gene Maguin
>
>
>
>