23-April-2006.  The zipped setup file file is 18.3Mb in size and is named HDA-1.zip. It can be downloaded here. This program attempts to solve a general problem of determining "diversity" in variable magnitudes amongst members of predefined groups. It achieves this by defining diversity as "variability", such that those groups whose members are more heterogenous in their magnitude vectors across the variables of interest are deemed to show more "diversity" than those groups whose members show greater homogeneity of magnitude vectors. In the language of biological ecology, the groups may be species, members of the groups the samples of such species, and the variables may be associated with those in the habitat within such species exist. Therefore, in looking at habitat diversity amongst species, the program enables an investigator to rank species in terms of their diversity of use of habitat variables. Indeed, the program was specifically written for an investigation in marine biology. However, it has application wherever the concern is to compare predefined groups of individuals in terms of the degree to which score or magnitude vectors on variables vary between members within groups. The program works by comparing each member of a species/group to all other members of the group, using three kinds of distance/discrepancy-expressed-as-similarity functions scaled between 0 and 1. Thus, the raw data of the within group comparison consists of (N2 - N)/2 comparison coefficients, where N = the number of members within a species. Rather than using the conventional summary point-estimate approach (using moments such as the mode, mean, or variance/standard deviation, or an assumed hypothetical sampling distribution for a test statistic based upon these coefficient distributions, the program instead relies upon the use of the median and interquartile range (IQR), with its results presented as a range plot (plotting the median and IQR for all species in one comparative graph). Obviously, the program is computationally intensive when species/group numbers may be measured in thousands. The coefficient distributions per species/group may be output for further analysis; the program also provides a binned frequency distribution for each species/group for the convenience of the user.

Download and Installation Information
You can run the setup file from the web-page download dialog, or save it to some convenient location on your own disk and simply run the setup file. The software can be installed in any directory of your choosing. The installation includes a very large online help file (7.9Mb: lots of screen graphics to support the "How to" and Results sections) as well as a printable 54-page pdf manual (5.6Mb) - which is why the installation is so large.

27th April, 2006 - For Windows ME users only (if there are any left out there!) - the installation requires a DLL (GDIPLUS.DLL) to be installed in your c:\Windows\System subdirectory. I just noticed this whilst testing the installation on an old machine. You can download this file from here (0.9Mb) - within a zipped archive.