From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Carsten Dominik Subject: Re: [PROPOSAL] Quick and easy installation instructions Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2010 08:26:38 +0200 Message-ID: <50AE8A48-F8C3-4358-88B2-25CF7A7D15E0@gmail.com> References: <87tylcy6gw.fsf@stats.ox.ac.uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v936) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=37182 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1P07C8-00031I-5V for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Mon, 27 Sep 2010 02:28:31 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1P07Ag-0008Ac-LB for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Mon, 27 Sep 2010 02:26:43 -0400 Received: from mail-ew0-f41.google.com ([209.85.215.41]:42612) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1P07Ag-0008AP-CB for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Mon, 27 Sep 2010 02:26:42 -0400 Received: by ewy28 with SMTP id 28so1467825ewy.0 for ; Sun, 26 Sep 2010 23:26:41 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <87tylcy6gw.fsf@stats.ox.ac.uk> List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: Dan Davison Cc: emacs org-mode mailing list On Sep 26, 2010, at 3:33 PM, Dan Davison wrote: > I think that the documentation concerning installation should be made > more user-friendly. My impression is that the Org manual makes all > this > sound much harder than it needs to be, and I suspect that this is an > entry-barrier for new Org users. For example, the first thing users > encounter in the manual section is an instruction to edit a Makefile. > > I suggest we provide a "quick and easy installation" section to the > manual, that shows people how to start using the latest version of > Org-mode without messing about with compilation and installation (I > rarely compile and have never "installed" Org-mode). It would also be > helpful to include notes on how to find your ".emacs" file. > > This would involve the following changes to section 1.2 Installation: > > 1. The first thing it should say would be along the lines of > "A reasonably recent version of Org is included in Emacs. Are you > sure you need the latest version of Org? If not, skip to the > Activation section and start using Org!" I do agree that we should have this sentence, but maybe modified like this: If you have a recent release of Emacs, a version of Org-mode sufficient for all basic use is already included and you may skip the installation instructions and continue with section xxx, activation. However, Org-mode evolves fast. Therefore, we do recommend to install the most recent release. Maybe we could actually have an Emacs command that will insert the basic stuff into .emacs and optionally compile the Lisp files. The installation would be: - download and unpack tar file - emacs -l path-to-org.el - M-x org-install org-install would figure out where org.el is, add to .emacs and query for compilation. This wouod make things independent from make and other tools. Just my 5c - Carsten > > 2. Then we should lay out an easy route and a full route: > 1. Quick and easy > Download, set your load-path and (require 'org-install) > Optionally compile (within emacs[1]?) > Suggested text below. > 2. Full install > Based on existing instructions > > > What do people think? Is it just the info files which are the issue? > What does a single-user machine gain from installation other than info > files? > > Dan > > Footnotes: > > [1] How about including in Org-mode a function `org-compile' based on > http://orgmode.org/worg/org-hacks.php#compiling-org-without-make > and `org-reload' > > > Example quick and Easy installation text: > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > 1. Download the latest version > .zip and .tar.gz version are kept at > http://orgmode.org/org-latest.zip > http://orgmode.org/org-latest.tar.gz > > 2. Extract the archived files > This will create a folder called "org-mode". Let's say that the > location of this folder is "~/path/to/org-mode" (for Windows see > footnote [1]) > > 3. Add the following lines to your .emacs file (note that we're > pointing > to the "lisp" folder *within* the main "org-mode" folder): > > (setq load-path (cons "~/path/to/org-mode/lisp" load-path) > (require 'org-install) > > That's it. However, this will not install the latest info files, so > these will be out of date (corresponding to whatever version of Org > shipped with your emacs). See XXXX for instructions on installing the > info files. > > Now, Emacs should load whatever version of Org-mode you put at > "~/path/to/org-mode". So to update Org in the future, simply delete > that > folder and replace it with a new one (steps 1 and 2 above). > > Footnotes: > > [1] On Windows, this path might look something like > "C:\\path\to\org-mode" > > _______________________________________________ > Emacs-orgmode mailing list > Please use `Reply All' to send replies to the list. > Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org > http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode