		    a2ps README


Please send problems and feedback to bug-a2ps@gnu.org.

Please send happiness messages to both Akim & Miguel
(demaille@inf.enst.fr, Miguel.Santana@st.com)

See the file ANNOUNCE for a presentation of a2ps. 


Contents:
=========
	 1. Installation
	 2. Upgrading from previous verions
	 3. Distribution content
	 4. More?


1. Installation
===============

Some notes on the distribution:

    Most of the work for the installation is done by ./configure.

    ======================================================
    Reading INSTALL is mandatory to understand the process.
    ======================================================

    Some choices are to make, and to give to ./configure
	--disable-nls
		if you do not want to use Native Language Support
		(i.e. the ability to speak another tongue than English)
	--with-gnu-gettext
		if you want to use the GNU gettext library for
		NLS, instead of available NLS services

######################################################################
##  I fear there will be problems with the current gettext, so      ##
##  if you see complains like `missing __dcgettext', please rerun   ##
##  configure with `--with-included-gettext'.                       ##
######################################################################

    The following choices *are not irreversible*.  They just
    correspond to settings in the file etc/a2ps_cfg:
	--with-medium=MEDIUM
		define the default medium used by a2ps (A4, Letter etc.)
	--with-encoding=ENCODING
		define the default encoding (ascii, latin1..., latin6,
		hp, mac, ibmpc, pcg, cp1250).

    Note (for novices). If you are not root, you should give
    ./configure the option --prefix=$HOME to be able to install.

 || =======================================================
 || Setting correctly the top of etc/a2ps_cfg is MANDATORY
 || =======================================================
 ||
 || Before `make install', check the default values in the file
 || etc/a2ps_cfg.  It is absolutely essential that you check that
 || the value of the following lines are correct:
 ||	1. DefaultPrinter:
 ||	2. UnkwownPrinter:
 ||	3. DefaultPPD:
 ||	3. Options: --encoding=
 ||	4. Options: --medium=
 || Note that a2ps_cfg is a precursor of a2ps.cfg (which is built
 || at `make' time).  Hence always modify a2ps_cfg.
 || =======================================================
 || Setting correctly the top of etc/a2ps_cfg is MANDATORY
 || =======================================================

    Remember that << make install >> is mandatory for a2ps to work
    correctly.  Once the << make install >> done, you may remove the
    current directory (the one which has been extracted from the .gz).

    This program has been successfully ported to Solaris, SunOS, Linux, 
    HP-UX, AIX 3.2, AIX 4.2, MS-DOS (Win95) with various compilers.
    It is even used as a filter for print services.




2. Upgrading from previous versions (pre-4.10)
==============================================

   Because the organization of the library files is different,
   it is strongly suggested to get rid of your old library files
   (usually rm -rf .../share/a2ps is enough).

   There _will_be_ problems if you don't remove them, because the new
   a2ps may use files meant for the old versions.  If you don't want
   to remove these files, at least make sure they won't be installed
   in the same place.

   There can be strange things happening with `make check'.  This
   is due to a painful behavior of some shared library handlers:
   they use an old a2ps library with the new a2ps executable.

   Doing `make install' _before_ make check solves the problem.




3. Distribution content
=======================

Some interesting files/directories you might want to look at are:

	README		This message
	INSTALL		Information on the installation process
	ABOUT_NLS	A presentation of GNU's Native Language Support
			project
	TODO		Some things to be done
	afm/		Files that describe the width of the chars of a font
	arch/		Files to help to port a2ps to non Unix OSes
	doc/		The whole documentation
	encoding/	Description of the encodings.
	etc/a2ps_cfg	The default configuration (after configure/make)
	po/		Files for the translation
	sheets/		Style sheets for pretty printing support
	contrib/emacs/	Useful emacs files for a2ps
	contric/sample/	A sample on using liba2ps
	ogonkify/	The full distribution of the fantastic
			ogonkify package, that fixes a font designed for
			Latin1 so that others latin encodings are supported.
	


4. More ?
=========

	a2ps has a home page where the latest version may be found.
		http://www.inf.enst.fr/~demaille/a2ps/
	There, you may also find an html version of the documentaion,
	and a postscript (A4, 2 up) version.

	There is also a mailing list, to which you can subscribe by
	sending an email to a2ps-request@gnu.org, with "subscribe" as
	subject.

	*NOTE* The mailing list is not a place to drop your bug reports
	or the problems you have.  It is a place to discuss about a2ps,
	to make the announcements, wishes etc.  Before sending a mail
	there, remember many people will read your mail.

	Bug reports should be sent to bug-a2ps@gnu.org

PS(um): if you're happy with this program, or just if you installed
it, please let_us_know! We would be so happy :).


