Is Dyalog APL Compatible with Vista and Windows 7?

[Morten|Dyalog]

[edited 2012-04-27 to fix location of resources]
[edited 2016-07-29 to reflect v15.0]

Since Version 11.0.2, Dyalog is compatible with Windows Vista and Windows 7. Note that version 15.0 does not run on Windows XP, but it does run all Windows versions from Vista up to and including Windows 10.

This text was originally written for Windows Vista, but the same comments apply to Windows 7:

Installation
If you are running User Access Control, your user will need to be a Power User or Administrator in order to install Dyalog (see http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/librar ... omp_topic4 for details). See http://forums.dyalog.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=37.

Non-Unicode APL Fonts
The Unicode Fonts supplied with version 12.0 onwards are completely compatible with Vista. However, some of the standard fonts shipped with version 11.0 cannot be used to display all APL symbols. The font Dyalog Symbol should be used instead. This font looks best with ClearType enabled. This font is included in the setup_fonts MSI file which can be downloaded from http://www.dyalog.com/resources. To install the fonts, download the msi file and double click on it.

Version 11.0 Help Files
Windows Vista does not support the 32-bit .HLP file format used for version 11.0 help files. Patched version 11.0 systems dated March 20th 2007 or later will use help files in Compiled HTML format (.CHM), if these are present in the Help folder under the main Dyalog program folder (the same location as the .HLP files). V13.1 CHM Help Files can be downloaded from http://docs.dyalog.com/13.1. The on-line help is available at http://help.dyalog.com/<version_number>.

Note that - because they can contain or link to executable content - CHM files are viewed as a security risk - especially after recent patches to Vista. Accessing them from remote locations, or even after downloading them - can be difficult. We know of two Microsoft Knowledgebase issues which discuss problems:

CHM files on the intranet or internet cannot be opened (fix requires a registry change):

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896054

Downloaded CHM files cannot be opened (solution is to right-click the CHM file, and then click properties, Click Unblock):

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/902225

[AndyS|Dyalog]

Note that in V11 the fontlist which appears in the Font Picker is hardcoded, so although the Dyalog Symbol font may have been installed, you will have to set it manually:

      ⎕se ⎕ws'Font' 'Dyalog Symbol'