🚀 go-pugleaf

Thanks to everyone, both in and out of SPSS who responded to my query about
when and whether there will be a forthcoming version of SPSS for the Mac.
The consensus appears to be that an updated version will emerge, with
estimates ranging from "late 1993 to early 1994" to "within the next 12
months."  Someone also claimed that this will be numbered version 6, so
there apparently will be no version 5 for the Macintosh.

This makes a certain amount of sense, based on some brief experience
playing with the Windows version 5 (I haven't seen version 6).  That
version may have some advantages over Mac version 4, but they weren't
apparent to me.  The Windows version does integrate graphing in a way that
the Mac version does not.  I have mixed feelings about this, because I
strongly prefer the main graphing program I use (Deltagraph) to either the
SPSS-Windows graphics or the SPSS-Cricket Graph combination that SPSS used
to push.  So direct incorporation of graphing could be a mixed blessing.
System changes like Apple's Open Collaborative Environment may tip the
balance against trying to do all things in one package.

Since it's become clear  that a number of SPSS employees monitor this list,
let me end with a plea for improved categorical analysis capabilities in
forthcoming versions.  This has been a hot area of statistical development
in recent decades, and SPSS could really distinguish itself by including
generalized linear modeling (particularly with longitudinal factors) into a
mainstream statistical package.