[postgis-devel] Updated SVN documentation

[Obe, Regina]

> The "complete" install guide should probably be as Paul suggests.

> I'm torn about including URLs to the proj and geos downloads, primarily 
> because it then becomes a continual chore to update them ... it seems 
> like the sort of thing that belongs in a howto on a wiki more than in 
> the core documentation. The postgresql documentation provides only the 
> very generic (and long lived) ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ as a reference for 
> those looking to download pre-requisite packages. To follow suit, we 
> could simply link to http://download.osgeo.org/ which is about 90% of 
> the way to linking to the latest packages, without requiring updates 
> every time a new version comes out.

And how often do these versions change relative to the frequency with which we change PostGIS? I would say about the same frequency.  So we should be revisiting this section just as frequently.
Updating 2 dependencies in my mind is not a big chore.

> My 2 cents as someone who has installed a lot of software on a lot of 
> Linux (and other) boxen over the years.

>  Chris

Exactly my point Chris - you and Mark have installed a lot of Linux software.  We are not writing the
documentation for people like you.  You already know how to install these things.  I'm closer to
the audience we want to target - and I find trying to wade my way to another site to figure out
which version of stuff I have to install extremely frustrating.

PostgreSQL is a much larger project with many more dependencies and dependencies they have less control over.  It makes sense for them to just simply link to another set of instructions.  It doesn't for PostGIS.





-----------------------------------------
The substance of this message, including any attachments, may be
confidential, legally privileged and/or exempt from disclosure
pursuant to Massachusetts law. It is intended
solely for the addressee. If you received this in error, please
contact the sender and delete the material from any computer.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/postgis-devel/attachments/20080822/40c0cb6a/attachment.html>