From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: "Thomas S. Dye" Subject: Re: [PROPOSAL] Quick and easy installation instructions Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2010 03:44:04 -1000 Message-ID: <669C8C92-7ADA-4681-B419-BD935D8A5F51@tsdye.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=41567 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1OzrWW-0005CL-8p for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sun, 26 Sep 2010 09:44:13 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OzrWU-0004V7-V5 for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sun, 26 Sep 2010 09:44:12 -0400 Received: from oproxy1-pub.bluehost.com ([66.147.249.253]:43109) by eggs.gnu.org with smtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OzrWU-0004Ul-OB for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sun, 26 Sep 2010 09:44:10 -0400 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 AM, 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!" > > 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" +1 Tom