[Contents] [Introduction] [Overview] [Preparing] [Data] [General] [Statistics] [References] [Appendices]
[Appendices]
[Appendix A]
[Appendix B]
[Appendix C]
[Appendix D]
The README files included with Blossom has the latest information for configuring and installing Blossom as well as descriptions of recent program updates and improvements. The Blossom website at http://www.fort.usgs.gov/products/software/blossom/blossom.asp has the latest information and releases of the program.
The Blossom installation program gives basic instructions that should be easy to follow. The default installation folder will be in the "Program Files" folder of the first local drive (hard disk directory). An alternate installation path can be provided. The installation program creates a "Blossom" folder and installs files and folders needed to run Blossom. If the folder already exists, you can overwrite it. This is an easy way to update Blossom software. A dialog box appears asking to add programs to the Windows Start menu and to add environment variables. Blossom will need the environment variables for proper operation. Once done, the computer may need to be re-booted to run Blossom.
Some versions of Windows use the Windows registry. Appropriate paths for an environment variable called "BLOSSDIR" are added to the registry as well as an addition in the "PATH" variable to the Blossom installation folder. Other versions of Windows find environment variables set in the "AUTOEXEC.BAT" file, and appropriate lines will be added to that file so that Blossom will run.
Blossom is installed with two executable programs, a Console version (CONBLOS.EXE) and a Windows version (BLOSSOM.EXE). The Console version runs best from a Command Prompt window configured as described below. It appears as a "glass teletype" and opens no true windows. All interaction with the Console version is from the command line. The Windows version of Blossom has some Windows functionality, but it also can interact with the user from a command line data entry window. Aside from the user interface, both programs use identical code so results should be identical.
The Console version of Blossom does not have additional Windows overhead and so runs slightly faster. It does use Windows for virtual memory management, so that data file size limitationss depend on how much Windows Virtual Memory is available. The Console version is more amenable to processing very large Blossom "submit" files (ASCII text files of Blossom commands). This makes it particularly well suited for batch processing of many analyses of many data sets (as in a simulation study).
The Windows version of Blossom runs nearly as quickly as the Console version, yet has additional Windows functionality for accessing files, obtaining Windows help for Blossom, and selecting, clipping and printing output. This version is best suited for interactive sessions where most of the time is spent considering what needs to be done next and inspecting results. Access to the file system is simplified through interaction with file access dialog boxes. The Windows version also processes Blossom (submit) command files.
The Windows version of Blossom is installed to run from the Windows Start Programs menu. This may be copied and pasted as a shortcut onto the Windows Desktop. No further configuration is necessary. When first installed, Windows Blossom program is run from the installation BLOSSOM\BIN folder and accesses files from the installation BLOSSOM\SAMPLES folder. Sample files in that folder can be accessed with the USE and SUBMIT commands to follow the examples in the SUBMIT a Command File and USE a Data File in General Program Functions. Once this version is started, you can change folders to use data files or submit command files. Accessing a data file or submit command file (without specifying the name) initiates a file access dialog box that allows navigation within the file system. Blossom keeps track of the current folder and restarts in the last working folder of the previous session.
When Blossom is run, a small entry field opens at the bottom of the Blossom window. This is the "Blossom Command>" or Blossom command prompt window. Commands to Blossom are entered here. The last 100 commands of a session are kept by Blossom. Pressing the F3 function key and highlighting the command to access recalls previous commands. A command can be edited in the Blossom command prompt window using normal Windows editing functions. When editing is done, press the ENTER key to send the command to Blossom for processing.
The Windows version of Blossom can be started with optional operating system command line arguments. The properties of a shortcut on the Windows Desktop (right click on it and select Properties), can be edited to provide a data file for Blossom to use, followed by the Blossom command to perform a statistical analysis. Blossom starts up, uses the data file, and performs the analysis. Alternatively, a SUBMIT command can be added. To the invocation of the Blossom program, append the arguments "SUBMIT" and then the name of the file to submit. Blossom starts up and processes commands in the command file. Another, possibly more useful way to do this is to invoke the Windows version of Blossom with command line arguments from a Windows Command Prompt window (sometimes called a "DOS Box" or DOS Window). Operating system command line arguments is discussed in the following section. The BLOSSOM.EXE program can be invoked in the same way as CONBLOS.EXE from a "DOS prompt".
After installation, the Console version of Blossom can be run from the Windows Start menu. All access to Blossom is through the Blossom command line, entered at the Blossom command prompt, which is a "greater than sign" or "right angle bracket" (">").
As a Console program, this version of Blossom has access to files in the local folder where it is invoked, the "Start In" folder in Windows terminology. The Console program resides in the installation BLOSSOM\BIN folder and no data are there, so not much can be done. If Properties of the Console program shortcut are accessed (right-click on the program title on the Start menu and select "Properties"), the "Start In" folder can be modified to where data to be analyzed can be found. It is instructive to first set this to the installation BLOSSOM\SAMPLES folder. When Console Blossom is run; then access is to data and Blossom SUBMIT) command files that are discussed in this manual. Change the "Start In" folder of the shortcut properties to access other folders where data are to be analyzed.
The Console Blossom shortcut from Windows Start menu can be copied to the Windows Desktop. Changing the "Start In" folder of a shortcut makes a separate shortcut to each data folder. Multiple shortcuts can be consolidated within a folder on Windows Desktop.
An alternate and flexible way to run the Console version of Blossom is to set up a Command Prompt Window (sometimes called a "DOS Box" or DOS Window). The usual Windows icon for this is a stylized "MSDOS". Depending on the version of Windows, this invokes a session of COMMAND.COM or CMD.EXE. Access to the file system and other DOS commands is from the Command Prompt Window as well as CONBLOS.EXE (the Console Blossom).
Properties of the Command Prompt Window can be modified. Depending on Windows version, the number of lines displayed can be altered (something like "Properties, Layout, Window size, height" may be adjusted). The screen can be adjusted to a scrollable window (with any number of lines in the virtual screen size). This adjustment can be made by accessing something like "Properties, Layout, Screen Buffer size, height". As in all Command Prompt Windows, there are methods available to copy and paste using the Windows Clipboard. This is useful for pasting repetitive or complicated commands or lists of variable names. Windows documentation should be consulted for specific information about changing the properties of a Command Prompt Window and using Quick Edit Mode.
The Console version of Blossom can be run with operating system command line arguments, i.e., additional information can be sent to the Blossom program to begin processing. For example, from the Windows Command Prompt Window's prompt (the "DOS prompt"), the command
C:\PROGRA~1\Blossom\samples>CONBLOS MRBP.DAT
invokes Console Blossom and accesses MRBP.DAT data file, just as the USE command would. Moreover, a statistical command can be added to the command line and the program will access the data file and execute the statistical command, so:
C:\PROGRA~1\Blossom\samples>CONBLOS MRBP.DAT MRPP SPP1 SPP2 SPP3*TRTMT*BLOCK
runs Console Blossom, USEs data file MRBP.DAT, and performs a multiresponse randomized block procedure.
Blossom programs can process Blossom (SUBMIT) command files invoked from the "DOS prompt". The command:
C:\PROGRA~1\Blossom\samples>CONBLOS SUBMIT SUBWAY.SUB
runs Console Blossom and SUBMITs the Blossom command file SUBWAY.SUB.
Details about USE and SUBMIT as well as operating system command line arguments are given in the General Program Functions section of this help (see SUBMIT a Command File, USE a Data File, and Advanced SUBMIT Operations with Program Arguments and DOS Batch Files.
Blossom is compiled to run in a 32-bit Windows environment. Both the Console and Windows Blossom should run under Windows versions XP and 2000. The program is not guaranteed to run under Windows 95, 98, ME, or NT as these operating systems are no longer supported in our environment. Development and testing was done originally under Windows 98 and NT but for the last few years we have used only Windows 2000 and XP. Both Blossom versions are Window programs, including the Console version (despite its user interface), and depend on Windows for various functions, including virtual memory management. No Real Mode virtual memory manager is bound into Blossom, so the programs are not expected to operate in true DOS mode, although the Console readily runs in a "DOS Window" (also known as "DOS Box" or Command Prompt Window) opened from Windows.
Blossom installation takes approximately 6 Megabytes of disk space, including programs, documentation, help and support files, and sample datasets.
During operation, Blossom creates a copy of any data file USEd in a unique Blossom file format. This file (TEMP-DAT.$$$) contains values of numeric data from the USEd data file in binary format. The size (in bytes) of this file can be computed approximately by multiplying 8 byte number of observations by the number of variables. Space should be available on disk for this file to exist (plus space for output files and the Blossom history file). For example, a file with 3450 observations and 14 variables takes approximately 386400 bytes (actually it takes 386512 bytes due to some system-dependent formatting overhead). If there are missing values in data used, a duplicate temporary file may be created with appropriate records dropped for the analysis, so the space requirement is doubled. With multiresponse randomized block procedures (MRBP), a file may be created as a subset of the original file with the grouping a blocking structures of the variables used. The maximum temporary MRBP space requirement is the size for the non-missing data.
Blossom allocates virtual memory space dynamically at runtime. This means that the amount of memory required by Blossom depends on the program analyses being run and the size of the data and associated internal storage required for the analysis. If this exceeds the physical Random Access Memory (RAM) available, Blossom uses Windows virtual memory management. This runtime memory required cannot exceed the paging file size (swap space) available to Windows. Documentation to Windows virtual memory management should be consulted.
In the Windows version of Blossom, part of the (virtual) memory used includes space used by the output screen where the commands are echoed and results of the statistical analyses are written by default. This can be minimized by using the ECHO OUTPUT=OFF command (which stops statistical results being written to screen) and can be temporarily minimized by issuing the CLS (clear output screen) command.
Internally, Blossom has some limits on the amount of data it can support. The total amount of memory the program and dynamically allocated array space can occupy is about 2 gigabytes. Here are some limits within Blossom:
Note that there may be other, smaller limits depending on the combination of all factors considered.
Some specific Blossom statistical analyses require minimum numbers of elements:
[Appendices]
[Appendix A]
[Appendix B]
[Appendix C]
[Appendix D]
[Contents] [Introduction] [Overview] [Preparing] [Data] [General] [Statistics] [References] [Appendices]