Emacs for Windows NT and Windows 95/98

			   Version 20.4

			  July 22, 1999
		
This directory tree contains source and precompiled distributions for
GNU Emacs on Windows NT and Windows 95/98.  This port is a part of the
standard GNU Emacs distribution from the Free Software Foundation; the
precompiled distributions are provided here for convenience since,
unlike Unix, the majority of Windows users do not have access to a
compiler (and, besides, do you really want to compile Emacs when you
don't have to?).

If you have access to the World Wide Web, I would recommend pointing
your favorite web browser to the following document (if you haven't
already):

	http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/ntemacs.html

It should also be mirrored at its original location until the end of 1999:

	http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/voelker/ntemacs.html

The above web document is a far more complete version of this README
file.  If you don't have access to the Web, however, then read on.

* IMPORTANT LEGAL STUFF

   If you want to redistribute any of the precompiled distributions of
   Emacs, be careful to check the implications of the GPL.  For
   instance, if you put the emacs-20.4-bin-i386.tar.gz file from this
   directory on an Internet site, you must arrange to distribute the
   source files of the SAME version (i.e. emacs-20.4-src.tar.gz).

   Making a link to our copy of the source is NOT sufficient, since we
   might upgrade to a new version while you are still distributing the
   old binaries.

* What is where

In this directory, there should be a set of "tarballs" containing the
various source distributions and additional tarballs containing
precompiled executables for the various platforms (e.g., "i386"
corresponds to Intel x86 platforms).  There is also a "utilities"
directory that contains utilities for manipulating the distributions (if
you intend to use your own utilities, see the Unpacking section below
for troubleshooting tips).

I try to make this port available for all platforms.  However, I only
have occasional access to non-x86 platforms, and so I cannot promise to
always provide precompiled distributions for the other platforms myself.
If you find your platform directory empty, and you have a Microsoft
compiler, then you can download the source and compile Emacs yourself
(and, if you do, please consider contributing your executables; send me
mail and we can make arrangements for making them available on this ftp
server.)

Before downloading any of the distributions, please read the README
file in the distribution directory.

* Distribution formats

Emacs is distributed in two file formats: large gzipped tar files
(*.tar.gz), and collections of smaller zip files that can be copied to
1.44 Mbyte floppies (*.zip).  When downloading a distribution, you
will only need one of these versions.

* Unpacking distributions

Utilities for handling the distribution file formats can be found in
the "utilities" directory: for gzipped tar files, you will need
gunzip.exe and tar.exe; for zip files, you will need unzip.exe.  I
strongly urge you to use these utilities since they were the ones used
to create the distributions; the most common problem people have in
trying to get Emacs to run is due to some other utility program
corrupting the distributing while unpacking.

Open a command prompt (MSDOS) window.  Decide on a directory in which
to place Emacs.  Move the distribution to that directory, and then
unpack it as follows.  

If you have the gzipped tar version, first use gunzip to uncompress
the tar file, and then use tar with the "xvf" flags to extract the
files from the tar file:

  % gunzip -c -d emacs.tar.gz | tar xvf -

You may see messages from tar about not being able to change the
modification time on directories, and from gunzip complaining about a
broken pipe.  These messages are harmless and you can ignore them.

The "-d" flag forces gunzip to decompress (its behavior depends upon
the name of the executable, and sometimes it doesn't recognize that it
is really gunzip), and the "-c" flag tells it to pipe its output to
stdout.  Similarly, the "-" flag to tar tells it to read the tar file
from stdin.  Unpacking the distribution this way leaves the
distribution in compressed form, taking up less space on disk.

If for some reason you also want to have the tar file gunzipped, then
invoke gunzip without the -c option:

  % gunzip -d emacs.tar.gz

If you have the zip version, again open a command prompt window and
use unzip with the "-x" flag on all of the .zip files (note that you
canp with the "-x" flag on all of the .zip files (note that you cannot
use pkunzip on these files, as pkunzip will not preserve the long
filenames):

  % unzip -x emacs-_1.zip
  % (repeat for the remaining .zip files)

You can find precompiled versions of all of the compression and
archive utilities in:

  ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/windows/emacs/utilities

Once you have unpacked a precompiled distribution of Emacs, it should
have the following subdirectories:

	bin	etc	info	lisp	lock	site-lisp

If your utility failed to create the lock directory, then you can
simply create it by hand (it is initially empty).

If you do use other utility programs to unpack the distribution, check
the following to be sure the distribution was not corrupted:

  * Be sure to disable the CR/LF translation or the executables will
    be unusable.  Older versions of WinZipNT would enable this translation
    by default.  If you are using WinZipNT, disable it.  (I don't have
    WinZipNT myself, and I do not know the specific commands necessary to
    disable it.)

  * Check that filenames were not truncated to 8.3.  For example, there
    should be a file lisp\abbrevlist.el; if this has been truncated to
    abbrevli.el, your distribution has been corrupted while unpacking and
    Emacs will not start.

  * I've been told that some utilities (WinZip again?) don't create the
    lock subdirectory.  The lock subdirectory needs to be created.

  * I've also had reports that the gnu-win32 tar corrupts the
    executables.  Use the version of tar on my ftp site instead.

If you believe you have unpacked the distributions correctly and are
still encountering problems, see the section on Further Information
below.

* Compiling from source

If you would like to compile Emacs from source, download the source
distribution, unpack it in the same manner as a precompiled
distribution, and look in the file nt\INSTALL for detailed directions.
Note, though, that you must have a Microsoft compiler to compile the
source.

* Further information

There is a web page that serves as a FAQ at:

	http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/ntemacs.html

There is also a mailing list for discussing issues related to this
port of Emacs.  For information about the list, send a message to
ntemacs-users-request@cs.washington.edu with the word "info" in the
*body* of the message.  To subscribe to the list, send a message to
the same address with the word "subscribe" in the body of the message;
similarly, to unsubscribe from the list, send a message with the word
"unsubscribe" in the message body.

Another valuable source of information and help which should not be
overlooked is the various Usenet news groups dedicated to Emacs.  These
are particuarly good for help with general issues which aren't specific
to the Windows port of Emacs.  The main news groups to use for seeking
help are:

	gnu.emacs.help
	comp.emacs

There are also fairly regular postings and announcements of new or
updated Emacs packages on this group:

	gnu.emacs.sources

You are also always welcome to send me mail directly.  If you don't
hear from me immediately, however, don't worry; it sometimes takes me
a few days (or longer) to get to all of my mail regarding Emacs.

Enjoy.

Andrew Innes
(andrewi@gnu.org)