Unpack the archive in a directory of your choice. This will create the WINGSPAN top directory wingspan (or [.WINGSPAN] for VMS). You can unpack the archive as follows:

UNIX

1. Get the file wgspXX.tar.gz, where XX represents the WINGSPAN version number
2. $gunzip wgspXX.tar.gz
3. $tar -xvf wgspXX.tar

Alternatively, you could get the file wgspXX.zip and use $unzip wgspXX.zip

VMS

1. Get the file wgspXX.zip, where XX represents the WINGSPAN version number
2. Get the file UNZIP_VAX.EXE or UNZIP_AXP.EXE, depending on your operating system
3. Define a symbol for unzip. For example, for an ALPHA AXP machine,
   $unzip == "$DEVICE:[DIR]UNZIP_AXP.EXE"
4. $unzip wgsp_XX.zip

See the README files in the wingspan/setup_xxx directories for instructions on how to create the shareable image that is required to run the FORTRAN model fitting program MFIT from within WINGSPAN.

The main entry point to WINGSPAN is through the file wingspan/idl_source/wing.pro. After installation, you must edit wing.pro to specify the location of the IDL source code on your machine. You can then enter IDL, and execute the command @wing

There are numerous other parameters in wing.pro that are optional. Read the comments in the file, and customize for your preferences. You might want to copy the file to your own directory and create your own customized version of wing.pro. You will then run WINGSPAN from that directory by entering IDL and executing @wing, as before.

Many user preferences can be set while WINGSPAN is running (plot options, output file options, etc) through the Preferences button on the main menu. If you change any of the options, a control file is written to record your choices (mfit_control.dat). WINGSPAN will not let you write this file to the directory wingspan/idl_source (this is the location of the original distribution file mfit_control.dat), so in order to set preferences, you must copy wing.pro to your own area and run from there.

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