Windows 7

[VG]

Dear Dr Woodward,

I have got your book with me and installed BugsXLA: it runs well in my
laptop with Windows XP (32 bit) and Excel 2007, but it does not run in
another laptop with Windows 7 (64 bit) with Excel 2007. I wonder is it
possible to make BugsXLA run under Windows 7? WInBUGS are running
without problems in both computers. Many thanks.

Jorin

[Phil Woodward]

Thank you for purchasing my book and letting me know you have
successfully loaded BugsXLA, and also that it fails under Windows 7.
I currently do not have access to Windows 7, so am unable to modify
BugsXLA to run under this OS. Once I have done so, I will post a note
to this Group.

[Tony Myers]

Hi Jorin (Phil)

BugXLA seems to be working fine with my version of windows 7.While I
am new to both Bayesian analysis and BugsXLA and so have not
constructed any models of my own or run anything other than the
example spreadsheets, everything appears to respond how it should. I
am using a Sony Vaio (64 bit) with Windows 7 using excel version 2007
and the BugsXLA50 runs perfectly working through a couple of examples
from the book (BugsXLA book case studies). I did have an initial
teething problem but after a clean reinstall everything was fine.

Tony

On Oct 7, 5:25 pm, VG <jori...@gmail.com> wrote:

[VG]

I tried it again. The previous error message was file access denied,
so I changed the ownership and permission for the folder in my C
drive. But this time the error message is "XLS file must be saved to
drive before using BugsXLA". How can this be fixed? Many thanks.

[Tony Myers]

I think that just means you have to save the excel file (which is
an .xls file) to your drive first. It is worth trying the example
spreadsheets (found in the program folder where you installed your
copy of BusXLA) to check everything is working before setting up your
own analysis.

[VG]

Thanks, Tony. You are right; I tried to use it with a blank worksheet.
It now works!

So I think the original problem I had is file access, as Windows 7
sets more restriction to the access of folders.

Best wishes,

Jorin

[jaberwok]

WIN7 ISSUES.

Have just bought the book which looks just what I need. Thanks very
much for this. I think it is an excellent initiative to making WINBUGS
more accessible. I really like the text but I am having " Some
issues:" with working with the files in Win7

(1) Yes file access is quite a problem in Win7 - I kept of finding
that the zip. file for BugsXLA reported that it was unizipping but in
fact was not because of
elaborate Win7 security restrictions. You have to continually unblock
all the protections against malware Win7 puts up automatically. But I
could get this part to work fine after doing this all.
(2) But ...But . .I am having continuing problems in several areas.
The first major worked example spreadsheet (used in Chapter 3 and
which you emphasize as the one to start with) does not seem to have
the $F2-$F3 entries that are shown in the book illustration. Actually
you cannot see all the entry in the illustration but the $F$2 entry
looks like * . So with the spreadsheet example loaded I get an error
saying "blank line " and I cannot complete the example. What should
be in the $F$2-$F$3 cells? (apologies if this is dealt with
elsewhere- am I being foolish? [ quite possible!} ). Secondly I find
it very difficult to feed in the response variable and other items in
the spreadsheet into the model specification pull in . The only entry
that worked well for me was for where the data is residing (ie the
whole data matrix and this has a particular ikon in it - the others do
not). I expected just to click into the blank cells and then navigate
through the spreadsheet to find the variable names (or find a pull
down). . Is this my problem in not understanding Win7, Win7's
problems , my foolishness or something else?!
(3) I cannot relate all the spreadsheets available inside the
downloaded data set to the references in the book to different
illustrative data sets - have they changed names ? Ditto I think that
seeds is your example 2 isn't it?
(4) Let me know if I am not making the problems clear. I am really
happy with the book, just need to get these issues resolved.
PS nice to hear that your experience with RR was so positive. I am
always happy when the Boeing I am taking a trip in has a RR engine !
Andrew

[Phil Woodward]

Thanks for the kind comments. With regards your issues:

1) Thanks for sharing your experience of Win7, I haven't used it so
don't know if there is a quicker way to overcome the issues you
mention.

2) The data used in the book are in the file 'BugsXLA Book Case
Studies.xls' which as you state do not include the 'Predictions
for ...' entries.
You need to copy those exactly as in the book. So, for the first case
study you copy that shown in Figure 3.1 or 3.5 of the book which shows
F2 has entry TRT and F3 has entry *. If you then follow the book
exactly the program will run fine. I'm not sure I understand your
other points,
but perhaps it is not clear that the names of the variables as well as
the model statement have to be explicitly typed into the fields on the
model
specification form as shown in the book. You cannot select the
variable names from any drop down list.

3) All the case studies in the book have their data in the same XLS
file, 'BugsXLA Book Case Studies.xls' . Each sheet in this file is
named after
the case study, starting with '3.1' and ending with '9.4'. 'Seeds' is
on one of the other XLS files and is not referenced in the book.
These other XLS files
provide the datasets I used to check the program, and contain results
obtained elsewhere with which to compare the output from BugsXLA.

4) Hopefully my answers above clarify how to get this to work for you.

Many thanks, Phil