I found the following request on Usenet:

: From: "Rodrigo de Salvo Braz" Rodrigo_Braz@brown.edu.nospam : Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal.misc : Subject: *Overview* documentation for GNU Pascal?!? : Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2000 11:49:26 -0500 : Organization: Brown University : Lines: 14 : Message-ID: 889bj7$ks5@cocoa.brown.edu : NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.148.208.188 : : Hi, : : I have been trying to use GNU Pascal but found surprinsingly hard to find : instructions on the most basic things. Everywhere it seems to be assumed : that I know what libraries to use, what kind of file I want to generate. All : I get is detailed descriptions of options that do things I don't know about. : : So, does anyone know where to get overview documentation? : : Thanks, : : Rodrigo

Since this seems to be a typical problem, i.e., getting started seems to be the most difficult thing about GPC, I suggest to write more about this in the FAQ, as detailed as possibled -- starting from zero, covering different platforms, when (and how) to get a GPC binary or rather the source distribution, etc.

E.g., on Linux you better build GPC yourself because of glibc incompatibilities, but you can assume gcc, binutils, libc, ncurses etc. to be present, while under Dos, you better get a GPC binary for the first try and you need other files (that's already in the FAQ). The Chief is just writing a FAQ about building under MS-Windows which could be included or referenced.

Another thing to mention is the libraries needed by some Pascal units, see ftp://agnes.dida.physik.uni-essen.de/gnu-pascal/libs/README (you can copy the text if you want).

This is to say that it would be good to have the most important information for starters (what, where, how) available in one place. Perhaps it's also a good idea to copy some (not all!) information useful for starters from the GPC web pages. Then, of course, you might want to answer the request in the newsgroup with a pointer to the FAQ... :-)

Frank