[Lazarus] Tutorial Compiling/installing FPC and Lazarus from Sources of SVN

[Marcos Douglas]

On Sat, Jul 24, 2010 at 3:01 PM, Juha Manninen <juha.manninen at phnet.fi> wrote:
> Marcos Douglas wrote lauantai, 24. heinäkuuta 2010 19:14:24:
>> I agree. But compiling the source from the SVN can not be so simple
>> for most people. So I think in this case (using SVN) the information
>> should be detailed and, if possible, automate tasks using scripts.
>
> It is easy when you leave the extra fillings out. For example Lazarus trunk
> for Linux is essentially:
>
> $ svn co http://svn.freepascal.org/svn/lazarus/trunk lazarus
> $ cd lazarus
> $ make all
>
> Yes!
> And it is not much more difficult in Windows, with or without the CMD scripts.
>
> Building and installing the FPC trunk was supposed to be difficult.
> I experimented and searched for information for long before I got it right.
> But finally it is very easy. For Linux again it is a very short wiki section:
>  http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Getting_Lazarus#Build_and_install_with_make

When I joined the community of FPC, I tried to compile the FPC / Laz
on my PC, but could not. After receiving some tips in mailing-list, I
joined them and put all in this tutorial.
Now, this is not so difficult for me, but in the beginning was,
because of the details. What is ppc386, PPC_CONFIG_PATH variable, etc.
I only learned about it on the mailing-list.

> Sorry, only now I understood that you improved the old installation page which
> was badly outdated. It is better now but still it is long and intimidating for
> a new user. The download / installation pages are quite critical because they
> are the first thing a new person looks for.
> Now those potential users get a "Uhhh, so difficult!" effect from the long
> pages.
> If the instructions are divided into short pages with only one version and one
> platform / page, someone could get a "Wow, so easy!" effect. (maybe).
>
> I know, it would require many pages but IMO that is OK. They would be linked
> from a central Download / Installation page which would be linked from many
> visible places in wiki.

I agree. So, let's go improve it?

>> I have the energy. But I'm a little time in the community. Is that if
>> I start changing the documentation, the oldest will give me an earful?
>> I don't know... but if I have support, I continue.
>> Another problem is: I think my English is not so good :(
>
> To me your English looks good.
> I think many people realize that the documentation is not perfect and would be
> happy about the improvements.

Thanks. Then this is not a problem any more.

> The old pages can be removed later when the new ones are good enough.
> BTW, how to remove a wiki page?

I don't know... I never try!  =)


MD