ChangeLog addition: 2005-02-03 Ben Wing <ben(a)xemacs.org&gt; * BUGS, README.packages: Delete, incorporate into FAQ. * README: Incorporate into FAQ. Delete everything but text pointing to FAQ. build source patch: Diff command: bash -ci "cvs-diff --show-c-function -no-changelog " Files affected: README cvs server: Diffing . cvs server: BUGS was removed, no comparison available Index: README =================================================================== RCS file: /pack/xemacscvs/XEmacs/xemacs/README,v retrieving revision 1.17 diff -u -p -r1.17 README --- README 2002/08/20 06:31:26 1.17 +++ README 2005/02/04 03:01:54 ＠＠ -1,245 +1,15 ＠＠ This directory tree holds version 21.5 of XEmacs. +The information in this file has been superseded by the XEmacs FAQ. -*** What is XEmacs? +The easiest way to read the FAQ is to go to -XEmacs is a powerful, highly customizable open source text editor and -application development system, with full GUI support. It is protected -under the GNU Public License and related to other versions of Emacs, in -particular GNU Emacs. Its emphasis is on modern graphical user -interface support and an open software development model, similar to -Linux. XEmacs has an active development community numbering in the -hundreds (and thousands of active beta testers on top of this), and runs -on all versions of MS Windows, on Linux, and on nearly every other -version of Unix in existence. Support for XEmacs has been supplied by -Sun Microsystems, University of Illinois, Lucid, ETL/Electrotechnical -Laboratory, Amdahl Corporation, BeOpen, and others, as well as the -unpaid time of a great number of individual developers. - - - -*** What platforms does it run on? - - -- MS Windows (It has been tested on NT, 2000, 95, 98, and ME; you - can also compile Cygwin and MinGW versions.) - -- Unix (It is regularly tested on Linux, Solaris, SunOS, HP/UX, - FreeBSD, OpenBSD, BSD/OS aka BSDI, Tru64 aka DEC/OSF, SCO5, - and probably others. It should work on all versions of Unix - created in the last 10 years or so, perhaps with a bit of - work on more obscure platforms to correct bit-rot. It uses - a sophisticated configuration system to auto-detect zillions - of features that are implemented differently in different - versions of Unix, so it will probably work on your vendor's - version, possibly with a bit of tweaking, even if we've - never heard of it.) - -- MacOS/X (As an X Windows application. Unfortunately there is no - support currently for MacOS-specific features.) - - There is also a port of XEmacs 19.14 (an older version, circa 1996) - for all versions of MacOS, with extensive support for MacOS-specific - features. See the FAQ for more details. - - There are rumors of an in-progress port to OS/2. See the FAQ. - - XEmacs will probably never work on MS/DOS or Windows 3.1, and we're - not particularly interested in patches for these platforms, as they - would introduce huge amounts of code clutter due to the woefully - underfeatured nature of these systems. (See GNU Emacs for a port to - MS/DOS.) - - - -*** Where's the FAQ? - -Look at `man/xemacs-faq.texi'. - -For the very latest version, see -http://cvs.xemacs.org/cgi-bin/cvswebxe/xemacs/man/xemacs-faq.texi. - - - -*** Where's the latest version? - -For up-to-date information on XEmacs, see http://www.xemacs.org. - -To download XEmacs, see http://ftp.xemacs.org/ or -ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/. - -For the latest experimental sources, see http://cvs.xemacs.org/, which -gives instructions on how to get started with CVS access. - -There are numerous mailing lists for discussion of XEmacs. The -current description of these lists can be found at -http://www.xemacs.org/Lists/, or see `etc/MAILINGLISTS'. General -discussion of bugs, new features, etc. takes place on -xemacs-beta(a)xemacs.org. - - - -*** How do I build and install XEmacs? - -See the file `etc/NEWS' for information on new features and other -user-visible changes since the last version of XEmacs. - -The file `INSTALL' in this directory says how to bring up XEmacs on -Unix and Cygwin, once you have loaded the entire subtree of this -directory. - -See the file `nt/README' for instructions on building XEmacs for -Microsoft Windows. - -The file 'README.packages' will guide you in the installation of -(essential) add on packages. - - - -*** How do I deal with bugs or with problems building, installing, or running? - -The file `PROBLEMS' contains information on many common problems that -occur in building, installing and running XEmacs. - -Reports of bugs in XEmacs should be sent to xemacs-beta(a)xemacs.org. -You can also post to the newsgroup comp.emacs.xemacs (or equivalentlt, -send to the mailing list xemacs(a)xemacs.org), but it is less likely -that the developers will see it in a timely fashion. See the "Bugs" -section of the XEmacs manual for more information on how to report -bugs. (The file `BUGS' in this directory explains how you can find -and read that section using the Info files that come with XEmacs.) -See `etc/MAILINGLISTS' for more information on mailing lists relating -to XEmacs. - - -*** How do I get started developing XEmacs? - -First, get yourself set up under CVS so that you can access the CVS -repositories containing the XEmacs sources and the XEmacs packages. - -Next, set up your layout. This is important, as a good layout will -facilitate getting things done efficiently, while a bad layout will could -lead to disaster, as you can't figure out which code is the most recent, -which can be thrown away, etc. We suggest the following layout: (feel free -to make changes) - --- Everything goes under /src/xemacs (use a different directory if you - want). From now, instead of saying /src/xemacs, we use <xsrc-top>, to - make it easier in case someone picked a different directory. - --- Package source is in <xsrc-top>/package-src. - --- Installed packages go under <xsrc-top>/xemacs-packages, and - <xsrc-top>/mule-packages. - --- A "workspace" is a complete copy of the sources, in which you do work of - a particular kind. Workspaces can be differentiated by which branch of - the source tree they extend off of -- usually either the stable or - experimental, unless other branches have been created (for example, Ben - created a branch for his Mule work because (1) the project was long-term - and involved an enormous number of changes, (2) people wanted to be able - to look at what his work in progress, and (3) he wanted to be able to - check things in and in general use source-code control, since it was a - long-term project). Workspaces are also differentiated in what their - purpose is -- general working workspace, workspace for particular - projects, workspace keeping the latest copy of the code in one of the - branches without mods, etc. - --- Various workspaces are subdirectories under <xsrc-top>, e.g.: - - -- <xsrc-top>/working (the workspace you're actively working on, - periodically synched up with the latest trunk) - - -- <xsrc-top>/stable (for making changes to the stable version of - XEmacs, which sits on a branch) - - -- <xsrc-top>/unsigned-removal (a workspace for a specific, difficult - task that's going to affect lots of source and take a long time, and - so best done in its own workspace without the interference of other - work you're doing. Also, you can commit just this one large change, - separate from all the other changes). - - -- <xsrc-top>/latest (a copy of the latest sources on the trunk, - i.e. the experimental version of XEmacs, with no patches in it; - either update it periodically, by hand, or set up a cron job to do it - automatically). Set it up so it can be built, and build it so you - have a working XEmacs. (Building it might also go into the cron job.) - - This workspace serves a number of purposes: - -- 1. You always have a recent version of XEmacs you can compare - against when something you're working on breaks. It's true - that you can do this with cvs diff, but when you need to do - some serious investigation, this method just fails. - -- 2. You (almost) always have a working, up-to-date executable that - can be used when your executable is crashing and you need to - keep developing it, or when you need an `xemacs' to build - packages, etc. - -- 3. When creating new workspaces, you can just copy the `latest' - workspace using GNU cp -a. You have all the .elc's built, - everything else probably configured, any spare files in place - (e.g. some annoying xpm.dll under Windows, etc.). - - -- <xsrc-top>/latest-stable/ (equivalent to <xsrc-top>/latest/, but - for the Stable branch of XEmacs, rather than the Experimental branch - of XEmacs). This may or may not be necessary depending on how much - development you do of the stable branch. - --- <xsrc-top>/xemacsweb is a workspace for working on the XEmacs web site. - --- <xsrc-top>/in-patches for patches received from email and saved to files. - --- <xsrc-top>/out-patches for locally-generated patches to be sent to - xemacs-patches(a)xemacs.org. Less useful now that the patcher util has been - developed. - --- <xsrc-top>/build, for build trees when compiling and testing XEmacs with - various configuration options turned off and on. The scripts in - xemacs-builds/ben (see below) can be used to automate building XEmacs - workspaces with many different configuration options and automatically - filtering out the normal output so that you see only the abnormal - output. - --- <xsrc-top>/xemacs-builds, for the xemacs-builds module, which you need - to check out separately in CVS. This contains scripts used for building - XEmacs, automating and simplifying using CVS, etc. Under various - people's directories are their own build and other scripts. The - currently most-maintained scripts are under ben/, where there are easily - configurable scripts that can be used to easily build any workspace - (esp. if you've more or less followed the layout presented above) - unattended, with one or more configuration states (there's a - pre-determined list of the most useful, but it's easy to change). The - output is filtered and split up in various ways so that you can identify - which output came from where, and you can see the output either full or - with all "normal" output except occasional status messages filtered so - that you only see the abnormal ones. - -*** What's the basic layout of the code? - -The file `configure' is a shell script to acclimate XEmacs to the -oddities of your processor and operating system. It will create a -file named `Makefile' (a script for the `make' program), which helps -automate the process of building and installing emacs. See INSTALL -for more detailed information. - -The file `configure.in' is the input used by the autoconf program to -construct the `configure' script. Since XEmacs has configuration -requirements that autoconf can't meet, `configure.in' uses an unholy -marriage of custom-baked configuration code and autoconf macros; it -may be wise to avoid rebuilding `configure' from `configure.in' when -possible. - -The file `Makefile.in' is a template used by `configure' to create -`Makefile'. - -There are several subdirectories: - -`src' holds the C code for XEmacs (the XEmacs Lisp interpreter and its - primitives, the redisplay code, and some basic editing functions). -`lisp' holds the XEmacs Lisp code for XEmacs (most everything else). -`lib-src' holds the source code for some utility programs for use by - or with XEmacs, like movemail and etags. -`etc' holds miscellaneous architecture-independent data files - XEmacs uses, like the tutorial text and the Zippy the Pinhead quote - database. The contents of the `lisp', `info' and `man' - subdirectories are architecture-independent too. -`lwlib' holds the C code for the X toolkit objects used by XEmacs. -`info' holds the Info documentation tree for XEmacs. -`man' holds the source code for the XEmacs online documentation. -`nt' holds files used compiling XEmacs under Microsoft Windows. +http://www.xemacs.org/Documentation/21.5/html/xemacs-faq_1.html + +You can also the local copy of the FAQ inside XEmacs by using +use Help->XEmacs FAQ from the menu, or `C-h F'. + +If you don't have XEmacs running and can't access the web, +look directly at `man/xemacs-faq.texi' or `info/xemacs-faq.info'. + + cvs server: README.packages was removed, no comparison available