You might need texinfo-2.10 for compiling the texinfo files.
Get it from wuarchive.wustl.edu or prep.ai.mit.edu or wherever.

The supplied Makefile will make everything for you
(if you have makeinfo,tex,texindex and gnuemacs installed, else rename
the variables suitably).
Take a look at it - you might want to redefine the BATCHCOMMAND variable
if nothing else.

The texinfo-note is about a problem with the circle font,
if you have that problem.

vip.blurb is the net announcement

gmhist.el is the history package used with VIP4.3 (not by default)

vip.texinfo and vip-cmd.texinfo are the texinfo files for the manual

vipcard.tex is the quickref

vip.el is vip4.3

README is this file, which you are presumably reading. I dunno 
know why this is always mentioned. Perhaps to be PC, and avoid
discrimination against the differently-abled evolutionarily
disadvantaged, who survive only on ultra-short-term memory.