Want to install Salstat on Windows? Here are full instructions on exactly how to do that...

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Installing Salstat on Windows

Installing Salstat on Windows

Quick instructions

To install Python from source code, you need to download an install a lot of other software first that Python uses. It's all free to download and use.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Python environment, skip down to full instructions below.

If you are familiar with Python, install these libraries if they aren't already:

1. wxPython (version 3.0 or higher - version 2.8 will not work)
2. Numpy
3. SciPy
4. Requests
5. BeautifulSoup
6. xlrd and xlwt *
7. exodf *
8. sas7bdat *

Now download the Salstat source code itself.

Salstat (stable version from SourceForge) Salstat (latest version from GitHub. Likely to be better but more likely to also have errors somewhere)

* These are less common libraries but should be available via Setuptools (easy_install) or Pip.

Full instructions

1. Install Python

Your first step is to install a program called Python if it's not already there. Download from Python.org for Windows. When selecting a version, 2.7 is fairly safe. We've not tried 3.0 or later but would like to hear from anyone who has.

Open a command line window and type:

python

If you see an error like, "python' is not recognised as an internal or external command", then Windows cannot find the Python program. To solve this:

1. Press the Win key and press the pause key.
2. Click on "Advanced System Settings".
3. Click on "Environmental Variables"
4. Append ;C:\python27 to the "Path" variable.
5. Close down all dialogs and the command line window.
6. Open a new command line window and try typing python again.

And by now, you should have Python installed.

2. Install Setuptools

Setuptools really helps in downloading and installing a lot of the above software.

For Windows 7 or earlier, download ez_setup.py with a web browser and open a command line window where the file was downloaded and type:

python ez_setup.py

For Windows 8, open a Powershell windows and type:

(Invoke-WebRequest https://bootstrap.pypa.io/ez_setup.py).Content | python -

3. Install Pip

Pip is another part of installing software and it's a good idea to install it.

Download get-pip.py and open a command line window where you downloaded it and type:

python get-pip.py

4. Install wxPython

wxPython is a Python library that runs the interface. You must install version 3.0 or later. Version 2.8 just will not run.

Download wxPython and run the file by double-clicking on it.

5. Install Numpy

Numpy handles a lot of the maths that Salstat needs to do.

Download Numpy and double-click on the file to install it.

6. Install SciPy

SciPy handles more calculations. Download SciPy and double click on the file to install.

7. Install all the rest

Type all the below into a command line window to install the rest.

easy_install requests
easy_install beautifulsoup
easy_install xlrd
easy_install xlwt
easy_install ezodf
easy_install sas7bdat


The Requests library helps Salstat download data tables from web pages; BeautifulSoup helps to parse HTML pages and tables; xlrd and xlwt help to read Excel spreadsheets and ezodf helps with Libre Office spreadsheets; and sas7bdat helps to read SAS files.

8. Install Salstat

This is the actual program code. I'd probably recommend trying the GitHub version because it probably does run but is more likely to have newer stuff.

Salstat (stable version from SourceForge) Salstat (latest version from GitHub. Likely to be better but more likely to also have errors somewhere)

When it's downloaded, unzip it somewhere and open a command line window at the same folder and type:

python salstat.py

Salstat should now run. If it does not, come to the Salstat GitHub site and open a new issue to we can help you try to figure it out.

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