Hi,
I had been trying to configure FSF Emacs 20.5.2 and W3 4.0 which worked fine but I was not having any
luck getting support for the graphical image formats "jpeg", "png", and "gif". I could surf the web
but it was only text based surfing with no pictures.
I decided to try XEmacs instead. This is the "other" version of Emacs but this version provides
better support for the "X" environment. Eventually I was able to build the latest version of XEmacs
and W3 with support for the "jpeg", "png" and the "gif" image formats too. Actually Xemacs came with
built in support for the "gif" format. I just like to mention "gif" with "jpeg" so people can then
associate "png" with "gif" and "jpeg", not to mention "tiff" so I won't. Oh and the FSF people don't
like "gif" so don't mention that to them.
I can now surf the web using XEmacs and it looks good on most web sites too.
MY BUILD REPORT FOLLOWS:
It is pretty easy at least for my environment anyway. I just followed the steps outlined in the
XEmacs Installation HowTo at
http://www.xemacs.org/Install
1) step one says to check out the extermal libraries used by Xemacs and obtain any you do not have.
They point you to
http://www.xemacs.org/Download/optLibs.html for this purpose. I grabbed the
"JPEG", and "PNG" libraries. I knew I needed them because I built XEmacs without them, but then
my "W3" module would only displayed "gif" images. So I decided to install support for the "PNG"
and "JPEG" formats too and I am glad I did.
If I recall the "PNG" library at my site also required a zlib library which was pretty easy to
find too. I used zlib-1.1.3.tar.gz. The Xemacs people need better install documentation for
their optional external libraries. Here is what I did.
I built "zlib" I think it was just
gunzip tarball.tar.gz #
tar -xf tarball.tar # You guys know how to do this.
cd tarball-directory #
./configure
make
make install
I built "PNG" I think it was also just
./configure
make
make install
I built "JPEG" but I had some trouble here is what I did to fix that though.
./configure --enable-shared --enable-static
make
make install
2) Next I followed the XEMACS Installation HowTos steps two through four
I pretty muched followed their instructions.
5) On step five I had to deviate. They wanted me to do a "./configure" and let it work.
For my installation that would not work though. Here is what I did.
./configure --site-includes=/usr/local/include --site-libraries=/user/local/lib --with_png
--with_jpeg
make
make install
And that is it. XEmacs has a package download utility which is real easy to run once you are properly
configured. I used their package download facility to download and install the "W3" module. It was
way easier than the method I used for FSF Emacs 20.5.2. It was a no-brainer.
I am surfing the web with Xemacs W3 and I like it. I just get into XEmacs and press alt-x w3 [return]
and Surfs Up! There is nothing like a browser with emacs capability. I really, really like it.
If you like GNU software, and keeping your skills up by installing it, please post your build reports
to the list. I am interested in installing the GNU C++ compilier. I would appreciate seeing your
build report on that. There are a couple of things I want to build but can't because they require
C++.
Sincerely
Kevin Criss
Received on Wed Mar 01 2000 - 18:34:26 NZDT