confusion over installing and using gnats

[Wayne Dernoncourt]

I admit to being a newbie with gnats (I have yet to
successfully use it!  I could and did see the Tcl/Tk
interface, it complained that version 0.0 of the
database was incompatible? not surprising since I
didn't find all of the pieces to install/edit).  I'm
not an administrator, I'm a developer.  If after I
install and test it, the developers approve it, the
sys admins will install it.  I found lots of .texi (?)
files but we don't have info installed and I haven't
been able to get it installed.  (similiar stories for
automake & autoconf)

I've downloaded and read through the "Installing GNATS"
stuff and see what may be part of the problem - emacs.
I don't know that anybody here (where I work) uses emacs.
A bunch of people use textedit, I normally use nedit,
more than a few still use vi.  I'm sure that is some sort
heresy, but that is the way it is.  Is the use of emacs
critical to the use of gnats?

I also see that gnatsd (gnats daemon) needs to be
running.  The target platform is Sun Solaris using the
Tcl/Tk interface, not the web based interface.  This
should not be a busy/active process - currently a
mixture of 2 part time developers (C++ & Tcl/Tk) and
2 full time developers (Informix database).  To have a
daemon running requires paperwork, paperwork the sys
admins would like to avoid.  (we used to have a home
grown web based one that was almost never used - it
was taken down to avoid the paperwork needed for
gnatsd)

cron and at permissions are also needed?  I'm sure they
)sys admins) are gonna ask me why.

Take care      |   This clown speaks for himself, his job doesn't
Wayne D.       |   pay for this, etc. (directly anyway)