Re: Help: build emacs in cygwin

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
> CC: william.xue@gmail.com, offby1@blarg.net, emacs-devel@gnu.org
> Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2007 16:26:19 -0500
> 
>     Anyway, Cygwin users are used to run the usual "./configure; make"
>     commands one uses on GNU/Linux to build packages.
> 
> That may be true for Cygwin users with experience.
> But not for new ones.

By this very logic, we also need to address this problem in the msdos/
and mac/ directories, because perhaps inexperienced Cygwin users will
look there.

In general, inexperienced users simply download a precompiled binary
distribution.  Those who build their own have enough experience to
know where to look.  The age of Unix users who built all their
packages from sources is long gone; nowadays, I sometimes need to look
for hours for a plain .tar.gz source archive, wading through myriads
of binary RPMs and DSCs as I go, even for GNU/Linux.

>     I added something to say this even more clearly than we did before.
> 
> Your change made it a little clearer, but didn't say anything about
> Cygwin.

??? Here's my change (including a typo, later fixed by Juanma):

+  If you want to build a Cygwin port of Emacs, use the instructions in
+  the INSTALL file in the main Emacs directory (the poarent of this
+  directory).  These instructions are for building a native Windows
+  binary of Emacs.

How's this ``not saying anything about Cygwin''?

> When something is really important to communicate, it's a mistake to
> ask whether it "should be clear the way it is".  The question to ask is,
> "Can we do anything to make sure people get the message?"

I hardly need this lecture; see my change above.