Re: INSTALL file. Comments.

[David Kastrup]

"Dave Pawson" <dave.pawson@gmail.com> writes:

> 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.

Is this a joke?  Use your package manager to install the package, for
example by saying

sudo apt-get install unifont

on a console, or by clicking System/Administration/Synaptic Package
manager or by doing whatever else is done to install a package on your
system.

It can't be the responsibility of INSTALL to teach you the minimal
working steps of your Linux distribution.

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

apt-cache search efont

spews out (among others)

xfonts-efont-unicode - /efont/ Unicode fonts for X which cover various scripts
xfonts-efont-unicode-ib - /efont/ Unicode fonts for X (italic and bold)

and of course, you can get similar information using Synaptic.  Again,
the Emacs INSTALL file can't be a 101 class on using your
distribution.

> 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.

Because just installing the packages will work.

> 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.

Wrong.  The installation directory is where things get installed.  The
src directory contains just C sources, which looking at it will
corroborate.

> 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.

Maybe.

> 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?

No, you'll get a toolkit-less X compilation.

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

If you have the development libraries available, they will be used by
default.

> 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?

Why wouldn't it?

> 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?

Have you actually read the configure output?

> 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?

Only from there.

> Does this mean that having built it, I can delete SOURCE-DIR
> completely?

You can always delete your source directories after installation if
you want to.  What is the point of your question?

> 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'"

Maybe.

> 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?

It depends on the distribution/info setup.  So actually using a text
editor is the most portable thing to do.

> 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'

Maybe one should warn that this should not be interesting for the
normal user, but just for package creators.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum