ViSta - The Visual Statistics System 
Copyright (c) 1991-97 by Forrest W. Young

README file for ViSta for Unix

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

ViSta for Unix requires X11R5 or higher (it has been tested on X11R6
and X11R6.1), and a recent version of XLispStat (version 3.44 or
higher, although it is known that ViSta does not work properly with
3.50). Thus, if you don't have XLispStat you must download it first,
then download ViSta. The version has been developed and tested using
XLispStat 3.44 on a IBM PC-compatible notebook (486DX4-100,Pentium
83MHz) running Linux, a Sun SPARCStation 20/50 running Solaris 2.4 and
2.5, DECstation models 5000/120 and 5500 both running Ultrix V4.2A, as
well as Sun IPC and IPX workstations running SunOS 4.1.3.


===============================================================
Downloading ViSta
===============================================================

1. Download and install a recent version of XLispStat. Further
information is available from the XLispStat site
(http://www.stat.umn.edu/~luke/xls/xlsinfo/xlsinfo.html) and from the .

2. Download the file vista.tar.gz. Directions are available on the
ViSta for Unix page
(http://forrest.psych.unc.edu/research/ViSta/unixvista.html).

3. Un-compress the downloaded files. The compression format used is GNU
"gzip" (*.gz). The GNU gzip tool is available via anonymous ftp from
the GNU library at prep.ai.mit.edu.

===============================================================
Installing ViSta
===============================================================

1. Note the current directory (call it $CurrentDir). This might be
something like "/usr/local/vista" or "/home/myname/vista", depending on
who/where it is installed.

2. Unpack the tar-file, using the command: tar -xf vista.tar. This will
unpack ViSta into it's own directory: $CurrentDir/vista

3. Edit the file, $CurrentDir/vista/statinit.lsp according to the
comments found there. The comments, and the line to change, are:
       ;; CHANGE: For Unix, the following line must be the home location of
       ;; Vista, i.e. it should be $YourDir/vista
       #+X11(working-directory "/afs/cs.unc.edu/home/kurak/CK/vista")

You have to change the last of these lines to correspond to your
directory structure. For example, for the two examples given in step 1
(above) this line would be either:
       #+X11(working-directory "/usr/local/vista/vista")
or 
       #+X11(working-directory "/home/myname/vista/vista")

4. (Optional) Create a shell script named "vista" that invokes xlispstat
with the location of the file statinit.lsp as its argument.  For example, 
your shell script may have the following two lines:

#!/bin/csh -f
xlispstat /afs/cs.unc.edu/home/kurak/CK/vista/statinit.lsp

===============================================================
Set ViSta's Font Sizes
===============================================================

It is recommended that you set the default font sizes for ViSta to
improve the appearance of the graphics, menus and dialogs. This can be
done by creating (or appending) a file named
        .Xdefaults
in your home directory. This file should contain the lines
        xlisp*menu*font:   8x13
        xlisp*dialog*font:  8x13
        xlisp*graph*font:   8x13

The following script should automatically add resources for xlisp fonts
to your .Xdefaults file or create the file if it doesn't already exist.
If any xlisp resources already exist, then it leaves the file alone. 
The script then starts vista.

if [ -f $HOME/.Xdefaults ] ; then
    grep "^xlisp" $HOME/.Xdefaults > /dev/null 2>&1
    if [ $? != 0 ] ; then
	echo Appending to $HOME/.Xdefaults
	cat <<EOF >>$HOME/.Xdefaults
xlisp*menu*font:   8x13
xlisp*dialog*font:  8x13
xlisp*graph*font:   8x13
EOF
    fi
else
    echo Creating $HOME/.Xdefaults
    cat <<EOF >>$HOME/.Xdefaults
xlisp*menu*font:   8x13
xlisp*dialog*font:  8x13
xlisp*graph*font:   8x13
EOF
fi

xlispstat /usr/local/src/xlispstat/vista/statinit.lsp

===============================================================
Running ViSta
===============================================================
1. Invoke ViSta (via xlispstat) by:

xlispstat /home/myname/vista/vista/statinit.lsp

2. (Optional) If you had built the shell script "vista" in 
"Installing ViSta" optional step #4, then simply type:

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.