Releases 5.0.3 - 5.0.5.1, March, 1998
Unannounced releases for MS-Windows and Macintosh

• 5.0.5.1: Substituted Luke Tierney's new version of LispEdit for Win32 to fix a problem with starting from .lsp files.
• 5.0.5: Larger simulated data can be generated. Added Kernel Density functions to Histogram.
• 5.0.4: Improved the way Save Data works when the Datasheet is open. Improved Datasheet positioning and sizing. Datasheet now retains location, size, and data format across sessions. Added a main dialog for the Configure menu item. Expanded the Univar report. Minor changes made to QPlots.
• 5.0.3: Fixed a bug which caused an error message for the Edit Data menu item. Luke Tierney fixed a bug which prevented color allocation for 32-bit color. Added a Prefs directory to contain preference files. Minor changes to screen layout.

Release 5.0.2, February 28th, 1998
Major Release - MS-Windows and Macintosh
This is the most significant release since 1996. (Release 5.0.1 and 5.0.0 were unannounced, limited distribution releases.)

Help:

The new help system, includes a Help menu, an "About These Data" menu item, help for menu items, help for spreadplots, and help for all graphics windows. The graphics windows have a help button, as well as an item in the Help menu.

Analyses:

ANOVA can analyze unbalanced data. ANOVA and UNIVAR no longer must use table data, eliminating the need for table data, and thereby simplifying data management. Errors in UNIVAR have been fixed.

Visualizations:

Color has been added to the visualizations. New visualizations are available for univariate and bivariate data, for simple regression, and for bivariate multiple regression. Nearly all previous visualizations have been improved, some with major modifications. Boxplots have been enhanced, including an option for parallel coordinate plots. Spreadplot windows always close. Spreadplot layout and management has been improved.

Miscellaneous:

Reports have been improved for ANOVA, UNIVAR and PRINCOMP. Color has been added throughout. A text window is available for MS-Windows. Messy windows have been eliminated. There is a new dynamic opening screen, ABOUT VISTA and screen-saver. Color has been added to WorkMaps. WorkMap icon layout has been improved. Desktop layout has been improved.

Version 4.29 (September 1st, 1997) - Minor Release

Version 4.28F (August 1st, 1997) - Major Release

Version 4.28 (August 1st, 1997) - Major Release

• Sort-permute transformation has "sort-by-variable" as default, always sorts selected variable, and can sort ordinal or category variables
• Rank transformation now handles ties correctly and can rank ordinal variables.
• Error message improved when can't import data
• Preference to show guidemap no longer causes loading errors
• Load Model menu item enables
• Summary stats window now shows last line under Unix and Windows
• Open Data, New Data, Simulate Data, and Import Data can be used to author guidemaps
• Load-vista and prepare-to-quit functions no longer write protected files
• Eval-selection and Edit-selection no longer give error if listener not active
• Compiling facility improved

  Version 4.27 (March 14th, 1997) - Major Release

  This is a major new release that is available for all platforms, unifying the code for all platforms for the first time. The main new aspects are:
  • ViSta for Unix has all the features in ViSta for MSWindows and MacOS.
  • Data simulation.
  • Central Limit Theorem Visualization.
  • The handling of missing values has been improved.
  • Compiled code is provided to improve efficiency.

  Version 4.26 (October 30, 1996) - Maintainence Release

  • Removed a bug that prevented the New Data menu item from working.

  Version 4.25 (October 28, 1996) - Maintainence Release

  • Minor changes oriented towards those developing new ViSta statistical objects.

  Version 4.24 (October 7th, 1996) - Major Release
  Version 4.23m (September 15th, 1996) - Major Macintosh Release

  These major releases introduced new regression capabilities, as well as new and improved visualizations for several analysis modules. Several minor bugs were fixed.

  Major new features:

  • A new OLS, robust and monotonic regression module.
  • Redundancy analysis (new option of the multivariate regression module).
  • Extensive visual regression diagnostics.
  • A visualization method for Univariate Analysis.
  • A completed visualization method for Analysis of Variance.
  • An improved visualization method for Multivariate Regression.
  • A multivariate regression test.

  Minor changes:

  • Import Data works with strings as well as symbols and numbers.
  • Create-Data can remove rows of multivariate data with missing values.
  • Datasheet menu items now allow adding several obs/vars simultaneously.
  • Datasheet shows matrix names for matrix data.
  • Datasheet window scrolling and sizing improved.

  Version 4.22 (January 8th, 1996) - Maintainence Release

  • Several minor bugs in the size, location and closing of spreadplot windows in the MS-Windows version were eliminated.

  Version 4.21 (December 17th, 1995) - Major Release

  New Univariate analysis capabilities were introduced, and bugs were fixed that made the Macintosh version much more robust.

  Major new features:

  • A new Univariate Analysis module was added.
  • The datasheet was completed.

  Major Bug Fixes:

  • A bug was fixed which, on the Macintosh, sometimes caused a fatal error when quitting ViSta with many open windows. This bug did not effect ViSta's computations, since it occured after the decision to quit, but it would sometimes completely freeze up the hardware, requiring a restart.
  • Bugs have been removed from "Create Data".
  • A bug has been removed when converting table data to multivariate class data.