[Orgmode] Re: [PROPOSAL] Quick and easy installation instructions

[Dan Davison]

Achim Gratz <address@hidden> writes:

> Dan Davison <address@hidden> 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.

Hi Achim,

OK, so we're agreed. But your points below don't seem to describe a less
technical route. Could you describe the less technical version of the
instructions for the method that you are advocating?

Dan

>
>> 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.