Newbie start-up problem

[Richard M. Heiberger]

These are good questions.

Part of The problem is that you have the operating system environment
variable HOME set incorrectly and in the wrong place.

1.  HOME is intended to be you, corresponding to the unix
/usr/users/tnm, it is not emacs.

2. You need to set HOME at the DOS level, not in emacs.


Here are my notes from my syllabus

### 0. HOME directory.

### You need a home directory, the one where you keep all your
### personal subdirectories and files.  On my own machine I use
### c:\HOME\rmh\.  On the machines in the Statistics lab, we use v:\,
### which is unique to each individual.  If you will be using the
### Statistics machines, get a personal account from the teaching
### assistant.  All this software is already on the Statistics
### machines and is already on the Speakman PC Lab machines.

### The home directory is where you keep your subdirectories, for
### example c:\HOME\rmh\503.f03\, c:\HOME\rmh\501.f03\,
### c:\HOME\rmh\letters.home\, etc.  Windows defaults to a home of
### c:\, which is a very bad choice as c:\ is where software gets
### installed.

## If you haven't already done so, create the HOME directory (with your name)
        mkdir c:\HOME\rmh

## In Windows 95/98/ME, set the home directory in c:\autoexec.bat
## with, for example, the line (rmh is me, use your name for you):
	set HOME=c:\HOME\rmh
## On Windows NT/XP set the {\tt HOME} environment variable from the
## control panel by clicking
## /System/Advanced/Environment Variables.



### emacs
# Place a shortcut to c:\emacs\emacs-21.3\bin\runemacs on the Desktop.
# Then edit the shortcut icon to show your home directory as the
# "start in" location.  I use "c:\HOME\rmh" .
# Because I am always in emacs I copy the edited runemacs icon
# into the startup directory.



Now back to your questions.

You have
(load "C:/progra~1/emacs/ess-5.1.24/lisp/ess-site.el")
and get the message
"Cannot open load file: ess-site"

This suggests to me that the path is not specified correctly.
Do a C-x d to find it.  It might actually be something like
(load "C:/progra~1/emacs/ess-5.1.24/ess/lisp/ess-site.el")


The current version of ESS is 5.2.0beta3.  I recommend upgrading.

The current version of emacs is 21.3.  I recommend upgrading.
The official location is
/anonymous at ftp.gnu.org:/gnu/windows/emacs/21.3/emacs-21.3-fullbin-i386.tar.gz
which hasn't there since August when they had a hacker breakin.
You can get a copy from a mirror
/anonymous at ftp.club.cc.cmu.edu:/gnu/windows/emacs/21.3/emacs-21.3-fullbin-i386.tar.gz


If there are further questions, please continue to send them ess-help at stat.math.ethz.ch

Rich