Notes
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Applets
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Configuring your System to
Run Vista Applets

    1. Software Requirements

      2. You must have both ViSta and a web browser ready to run on your machine.

    2. Hardware Requirements

      3. You must have enough memory to run both ViSta and your web browser at the same time. This is often about 16 mbytes on Windows or Macintosh machines.

    3. Set your Browser Properly

      4. You must set your web browser with the proper options to successfully download and use ViSta applets. This is done as described below.

      Netscape

      With Netscape 3, this is done as follows (other versions of Netscape are similar):
      1. Choose "General Preferences" from the "Options" menu. This displays the "General Preferences" dialog box.
      2. Click on the "Helpers" tab.
      3. Click on the "New" button. This displays the "Edit Type" dialog box.
      4. Enter the following information in the first three fields:
        • Description: XLispStat ViSta Applets
        • MIME Type: application/x-xlispstat
        • Suffixes: xli,fsl
      5. Click on the "Application" radio button.
      6. Click on the "Browse" button and use the dialog box to locate the ViSta (or XLispStat) executable.
      7. After selecting the executable, close the browse dialog box.
      8. Click "OK" in the "Edit Type" dialog.
      9. Click "Apply" and then "OK" in the "General Preferences" dialog.
      You have now configured Netscape to recognize ViSta applets.

      Microsoft Internet Explorer

      1. Choose "Options" item from the "Edit" menu. This displays the "Options" dialog box.
      2. For Internet Explorere 2, if the "Use Internet Config Settings" checkbox is checked, uncheck it.
      3. Click on the "Helpers" tab.
      4. Click on the "Add" button. This displays the "Configure File Type" dialog box.
      5. Enter the following information in the first three fields:
        • Description: XLispStat ViSta Applets
        • MIME Type: application/x-xlispstat
        • Suffixes: xli,fsl
      6. For "Encoding": Click on the "Text" radio button.
      7. For "How to Handle": Choose the "Use a Helper Application" item.
      8. Click on the "Choose" button and use the dialog box to locate the ViSta (or XLispStat) executable.
      9. After finding the executable, click on the "Select" button to choose the executable.
      10. Click "OK" in the "Configure File Type" dialog box.
      11. Click "OK" in the "Options" dialog.
      You have now configured Internet Explorer to recognize ViSta applets.

      Other Browsers

      You must set your browser to recognize a "mime type" that is specific to ViSta. Whatever browser you are using must be set so files with extensions xli or fsl will be recognized as corresponding to mime type "application/x-xlispstat, and so that the mime type "application/x-xlispstat" will cause the ViSta executable to run. The files are text files. The details for doing this will depend on the browser you are using.

    4. Use the ViSta Applet

      5. If you have enough memory to run your browser and ViSta at the same time (about 16 MBytes), you should now be able to return to the ViSta applet button, click on it and have the applet download and automatically run ViSta. However, this is still an experimental feature, and you may run into problems. Two known problems are mentioned below.

    5. Known Problems

      • With Netscape, when you download the applet a second (third, etc.) time, a number will be attached to the end of the file name. This number prevents the applet from being loaded by ViSta (ViSta will run, but it won't load the file). When this happens, you have to edit the file name to remove the number, then double click it. This problem will be fixed in a future release of ViSta. This does not seem to be a problem with Microsoft Internet Explorer.

      • After the applet file is downloaded you may get a Netscape error message saying it couldn't run the application (ViSta), and that you might be able to manually run it if you save the file. The error message gives you a choice of saving or deleting the file. Save the file, then double click on it to run ViSta. (I believe I have solved this problem and that you shouldn't see this happen. If you do, please let me know.) This doesn't seem to be a problem with Explorer.