Making it easier for new installs

[smitchel]

**Andreas wrote:
**still consider making the installation process easier as crucial for 
XEmacs. Much more important than any new features.
**Cheers,
**Andreas

I agree with you, Andreas.  When I recently installed 21.5.31 in 
Slackware64, downloading from the XEmacs website, I could not install
packages.  My son Byrel explained to me that you had to first manually 
download and install (in the right place) a few packages in order
to get the rest of them with the package system.  He told me what to do 
since he knew where to put them, and what to install first.

I  probably figured out the correct thing to do ~5 years ago, when I 
first installed 21.4.22, but I forgot since then.

I am asking myself, Can't this be made easier for a new user who is 
downloading from XEmac's own site?   Should there not be enough of the 
package
system in the main program to get the rest of it?  Maybe that is the 
wrong approach for some reason that i don't know?

There is so much a first-time user has to "know" to get to the point of 
giving the editor a good test--there ought to be effort at making it 
easier to try out, without
sacrificing things for experienced users.

Steve Mitchell