From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Achim Gratz Subject: Re: [PROPOSAL] Quick and easy installation instructions Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2010 19:37:34 +0200 Message-ID: <87hbhc5rtt.fsf@Rainer.invalid> References: <87tylcy6gw.fsf@stats.ox.ac.uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Return-path: Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=53455 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1OzvAb-0002Ap-Aq for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sun, 26 Sep 2010 13:37:56 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OzvAZ-0007Ho-VG for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sun, 26 Sep 2010 13:37:49 -0400 Received: from lo.gmane.org ([80.91.229.12]:39965) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OzvAZ-0007Hj-H9 for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sun, 26 Sep 2010 13:37:47 -0400 Received: from list by lo.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OzvAV-0000Uz-FM for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sun, 26 Sep 2010 19:37:43 +0200 Received: from p57aac59e.dip.t-dialin.net ([87.170.197.158]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Sun, 26 Sep 2010 19:37:43 +0200 Received: from Stromeko by p57aac59e.dip.t-dialin.net with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Sun, 26 Sep 2010 19:37:43 +0200 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: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org Dan Davison writes: > 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. Agreed. It was easy enough to follow for me, but I can see that others may find it too technical. > 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. Just as a counter-point, I always compile and install (even bleeding edge, that just goes into a different place) because that allows me to separate production from experimental code more easily. > 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!" Don't assume what version of Emacs the user may have and it may be configured in crazy ways, too. To read the instructions one would already have had to find and go to orgmode.org, so there is little further effort to fix them up with the latest stable version. Right now there is no official Emacs release that uses Org 7.x, for instance. > 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. I'd really suggest putting it into site-lisp as that removes the need to muck about with load-path (which isn't customizable...), the dangers of which you demonstrate yourself: > (setq load-path (cons "~/path/to/org-mode/lisp" load-path) (yes, just a missing closing paren). The other thing of course is that by putting it there all other users on the system will benefit from it. That's a plus even under Windows. While we are at it, I think both org and org-babel have enough files to better go into sub-directories (maybe org-install should stay on top-level). Achim. -- +<[Q+ Matrix-12 WAVE#46+305 Neuron microQkb Andromeda XTk Blofeld]>+ SD adaptation for Waldorf Blofeld V1.15B11: http://Synth.Stromeko.net/Downloads.html#WaldorfSDada