I am not very comfortable with the proposed changes by Wolf:
a) README why only adding hints for OS X users?
IMHO other platforms are very welcome to provide brief notes on their compiling specialities. Nevertheless, as Mac OS X is a Unix derivate, I feel the special need for a hint for Maccies - as they otherwise (like happened to me) expect the ordinary *nix procedure to work.
There are other platforms with special build tools (e.g. btool for win32) and - judging from the list of wiki pages about compilation on different linux platforms - deviations/adaptations from the generic 'configure/make/make install' routine are more common and not limited to Mac OS X.
b) INSTALL again - why adding only one of the sub-pages from the wiki which is already linked from the top wiki page about compilation and not the others as well? Personally I'd keep it as it is. If you need more information, the instructions are clear: read the wiki pages.
Alternative proposal
- In the README file add a section to or after the description of the
generic installation, mentioning the wiki pages for more information about platform specific issues.
Allright - but please give a clear hint, that on Mac OS X configure - make - make install is not the best option to begin with.
- In 'packaging/macosx' and 'packaging/win32' add new README files
containing either a summary or a copy of the platform specific wiki page about building and packaging.
OTOH a 'packaging/macosx/README' could be as short as
- please read the wiki page about compiling Inkscape on OS X: http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/CompilingMacOsX
- consider additional information about MacPorts installation: http://www.macports.org/install.php using MacPorts: http://guide.macports.org/#using
- run './osx-build.sh help' for an overview of the options available to configure, build and package Inkscape on OS X
But in this case there should be a very clear pointer to the packacking/macosx/README
Greetings,
Wolf