ViSta - The Visual Statistics System 
Copyright (c) 1991-98 by Forrest W. Young

README file for ViSta for MS-Windows

===============================================================
Hardware and Software Requirements
===============================================================

There are two versions of ViSta available for Microsoft Windows. These
versions work with Windows NT, 95, and 3.1. I am also told ViSta works
with OS/2. Both require  8 MB of RAM, 3 MB free of hard disk space.  A
color monitor is required (17" or larger recommended). Each version
includes XLisp-Stat and ViSta in a single download of about 1.5
Megabytes. The two versions are:

1) VIST32ZP.EXE (the 32 bit version): If your computer uses Windows NT,
95 or 3.1 with the 32-bit extension, then you should download
VIST32ZP.EXE. While there is no version of ViSta explicitly for OS/2,
users report that the 32-bit version works fine with OS/2 Warp version
3 and 4. (I am told that Warp versions  3 and 4 run any Win32s program
EXCEPT those needing Win32s ver 1.30 - ViSta works with ver 1.15 or
later).

2) VIST16ZP.EXE (the 16 bit version): While we recommend the 32-bit
version, if your computer uses Windows 3.1 without the 32-bit
extension, then you can download VIST16ZP.EXE. The extension, which is
version 1.15 (or later) of Microsoft's Win32s, is available from
ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES/PW1118.EXE.

===============================================================
Extracting ViSta
===============================================================

(This step may be done automatically by your browser.) The downloaded 
file that you receive is a self-extracting zip archive that contains 
all of ViSta along with the portions of the XLisp-Stat system that 
are needed for the version of MS-Windows that you specified. Run 
the .EXE file to extract all of the ViSta files. This should create 
a folder that contains VISTA.EXE, several other files and folders 
named README, DATA, EXAMPLES, CODE and USERS. 

===============================================================
Configuring ViSta
===============================================================

Win95/NT 32-bit True Color mode:
This release of ViSta uses a new version of XLispStat which should
have no problems when running in 32-bit True color mode. Previously, 
there was a bug which required changing to a lower mode. If you have
problems here, let me know.

Install the MonoType.Com font: 
Monotype.Com is a freely redistributable font from Microsoft which 
greatly improves the appearance of ViSta. To install the font, do the 
following:

  Windows 95 or NT: Run MTCOM32.EXE (read the agreement, click yes, and 
  then click OK -- now the font is installed).

  Windows 3.x (32 or 16 bit): Run MTCOM.EXE. This creates the monotype 
  file. Copy this file to the Win3.x System folder. Then run the font 
  installer in the Win3.x Control Panel (control.exe).

Run VISTA.EXE: You should see a dialog box (if you get an error, see
the next paragraph). The dialog box allows you to 
  1) Change the startup directory. By default, the startup directory
is the one containing VISTA.EXE. It is recommended that you not change
this (but see the information in the next paragraph).
  2) Change fonts and font sizes. Change the font to MONOTYPE.COM
(if you have installed it). You can change font size from within
ViSta later if it is too small. 
  3) Change default names of items in the Program Group that will be 
created by the configuration process. If you wish, change the default 
names to ones that you like.

Click "Configure and Quit". Click "OK" in the next dialog box to quit.
This sets the startup directory and fonts as specified, and creates
a Program Group containing two icons. If you used the default names, 
one is named ViSta, which is the ViSta program, and the other is named
LispEdit, which is a program editor.

=============================================================== 
Problems? 
===============================================================

If ViSta doesn't present you with a dialog box, ViSta isn't searching in 
the right directories. This problem is especially likely in 
networked environments with Windows NT. 

First, make sure that the wxls32.ini file is in the search path. You can 
try moving it to the directory that ViSta.exe is in.
 
Second, you may need to make a change to the statinit.lsp file in the 
directory containing the ViSta executable. Near the beginning of the 
file are the following two statements:
  ;#+msdos (working-directory *default-path*) 
   #+msdos (working-directory (strcat (get-working-directory) separator)) 
These statements determine where ViSta looks for it's startup files.

Only one of these statements is being used, the other is a comment. 
The semicolon (the ; character) makes a line a comment. You can try 
moving the semicolon from one statement to the other. Note that exactly 
one of the statements should have a semicolon before it. ViSta will not 
work if both statements begin with a semicolon.
 
The two statements implement two alternatives places for ViSta to
look for startup files:
  1) The first statement tells ViSta to look where wxls32.ini says to look. 
The value of the variable *default-path* in the first statement is set 
by the config.lsp file and by the dialog box seen during configuring. 
This value is saved in the wxls32.ini file, which is loaded on startup. 
This value is independent of where the .exe file is located.
  2) The second statement tells ViSta to look in the directory containing 
ViSta.exe. At startup, the value of the (get-working-directory) function 
in the second statement always corresponds to the directory in which the 
.exe file is located.

=============================================================== 
Running ViSta 
===============================================================

Vista is now ready to run. Use the ViSta icon in the Program Group.
Read the welcome message. It tells you how to further configure ViSta.

=============================================================== 
ViSta is a work-in-progress
===============================================================

ViSta has been used in introductory statistics courses, in
undergraduate and graduate courses in multivariate statistics, and in
graduate courses on research in computational and graphical statistics.
ViSta is sufficiently mature for these uses and provides a complete
range of capabilities for the more advanced courses. Some capabilities
needed for introductory statistics (frequency tables and graphs, for
example) are still missing.