INSTALL file. Comments.

[Dave Pawson]

To take proper advantage of Emacs 21's mule-unicode charsets,
This in the 22.1 version of emacs INSTALL file.


To take proper advantage of Emacs 21's mule-unicode charsets, you need
a suitable font.  For `Unicode' (ISO 10646) fonts for X, see
<URL:http://czyborra.com/unifont/> (packaged in Debian),

No mention of debian/.deb on that page.

<URL:http://openlab.ring.gr.jp/efont/> (packaged in Debian).
Ditto, no mention of a debian package.

General comment re fonts: No intimation of how emacs finds fonts,
nor how they should be installed, either within the emacs code
or how they are accessed from the system font locations.


Further mentions of emacs 21 are made.
e.g. On Debian, the
packages necessary to build the installed version should be
sufficient; they can be installed using `apt-get build-dep emacs21' in
Debian 3 and above.

quote.
3) You can build Emacs in the top-level Emacs source directory
or in a separate directory.

3a) To build in the top-level Emacs source directory, go to that
directory and run the program `configure' as follows:

    ./configure [CONFIGURATION-NAME] [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...

Since there is a 'src' directory for source, perhaps a more accurate
description would be

3) You can build Emacs in the top-level Emacs  INSTALLTION directory
or in a separate directory.

3a) To build in the top-level Emacs source directory, go to that
directory and run the program `configure' as follows:

    ./configure [CONFIGURATION-NAME] [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...


quote.
If you don't want X support, specify `--with-x=no'.  If you omit this
option, `configure' will try to figure out for itself whether your
system has X, and arrange to use it if present.

Not strictly true? X is only used if the dev libraries are present?
My (as built) system had X, but no dev libraries.

quote.
To get more attractive menus, you can specify an X toolkit when you
configure Emacs; use the option `--with-x-toolkit=TOOLKIT',

Is that the whole story? Isn't it for more than 'attractive menus'?
I.e. since there is no default (mentioned in INSTALL) am I right
in thinking I'll build the nox version without this option?

Says, Use --without-sound to disable sound support.
No mention of the --with-sound=yes option that was mentioned
by a couple of people?


quote.
If the description of the system configuration printed by `configure'
is not right, or if it claims some of the features or libraries are not
available when you know they are, look at the `config.log' file for
the trace of the failed tests performed by `configure' to check
whether these features are supported.

This doesn't cover the case where the libraries are missing?
Perhaps a note to indicate, for instance, what to look for
when configure failed to find a library? Or even a simple
statement, that, for instance 'nox will be built, since no X headers found'
or some such?


quote.
3b) To build in a separate directory, go to that directory
and run the program `configure' as follows:

    SOURCE-DIR/configure CONFIGURATION-NAME [--OPTION[=VALUE]] ...


I'm not clear what is happening here. It *seems* to generate enough
files to run make in the 'current' directory? I can run make from
there quite happily?
Does this mean that having built it, I can delete SOURCE-DIR completely?
Would be useful if I've done a make install?
This just for clarification.


quote.
7) Run `make' in the top directory of the Emacs distribution
This isn't true if I've run configure from another directory?
Suggest  "Run 'make' from the directory in which you ran 'configure'"


quote.
8) Check the file `dir' in your site's info directory (usually
/usr/local/share/info) to make sure that it has a menu entry for the
Emacs info files.


suggest adding how this might be done?
$cat /usr/local/share/info/dir | grep Emacs:
should show something like
$ cat /usr/local/share/info/dir |grep Emacs:
* Emacs: (emacs).                       The extensible self-documenting text


quote.
You can change where the build process installs Emacs and its data
files by specifying values for `make' variables as part of the `make'
command line.

I think this needs disambiguating from the configure param
--prefix='/wherever/to/install'

I'm unclear what the difference is? One places 'source' files
ready for the build process, the other executable (and other files
used during execution perhaps)

quote.
`archlibdir' indicates where Emacs installs and expects the executable
        files and other architecture-dependent data it uses while
        running.  Its default value, based on `libexecdir' (which
        see),

Is that a typo? Xref missing?

Nice to have feature:
Re MAKE VARIABLES
It would be nice to see guidance for users putting 'another' emacs
on their system, perhaps to say how all the variables can be
set such that the new values point to some non-standard location
and it's subdirectories therefrom?

No comments on the dos versions. Not used.

HTH


-- 
Dave Pawson
XSLT XSL-FO FAQ.
http://www.dpawson.co.uk