Improve text on the download web page.

Enumerate the possible ways to download paraslash and explain when
each option is most suitable.

diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 9a720307a568938a5ada992e7bc329f828c6743f..8a400d6fc19f78efb25f047f5f1a1f5d8ec35953 100644 (file)
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
        - para_client now restores the fd flags of stdin and stdout
          on shutdown.
        - Performance improvements for the compress filter.
+       - Improved downloads web page.
 
 -----------------------------------------
 0.4.12 (2012-12-20) "volatile relativity"

diff --git a/web/download.in.html b/web/download.in.html
index 563b61af5586402880d252cddcff5df1ebb4ce57..393fce9352d65a48f751735b886f5f57473dbfe3 100644 (file)
--- a/web/download.in.html
+++ b/web/download.in.html
@@ -1,13 +1,73 @@
 <h1>Download</h1>
 <hr>
 
-<p> Clone the git repository by executing </p>
+Paraslash is only available as source code, no binary packages are
+provided at this point. There are several ways to download the source:
 
-<p> <b> git clone git://paraslash.systemlinux.org/git paraslash </b> </p>
+<ul>
+       <li> <em> git</em>.
 
-<p> Or grab the <a href="releases/paraslash-git.tar.bz2">tarball</a>
-of the current master branch, or download the latest version from the
-<a href="releases/">download directory</a>. All regular releases are
-<a href="PUBLIC_KEY">cryptographically signed</a>. Since development
-takes place in separate topic branches the master branch is expected
-to be more stable than any of the released versions. </p>
+               Clone the git repository by executing
+
+               <p> <pre> <kbd> git clone git://paraslash.systemlinux.org/git paraslash </kbd> </pre> </p>
+
+               <p> The repository contains the full history of the
+               project since 2006, all work in progress and the source
+               code for the web pages. Choosing this option allows to
+               check out any of the four integration branches maint,
+               master, next, pu (see the
+
+               <a href="manual.html#git_branches">git_branches</a>
+
+               section of the manual). All previous releases
+               correspond to tagged commits and may be checked out
+               as well. Since development takes place in separate
+               topic branches the master branch is expected to be
+               more stable than any of the released versions. </p>
+
+               <p> Compiling from git requires additional tools,
+               notably the autoconf package must be installed. </p>
+
+       </li>
+
+       <li> <em> regular releases</em>.
+
+               All released versions can be downloaded as compressed
+               tarballs from the
+
+               <a href="releases/">download directory</a>.
+
+               These tarballs are
+
+               <a href="PUBLIC_KEY">cryptographically signed</a>
+
+               and contain a pre-generated configure script. They
+               can be compiled and installed without autoconf.
+
+       </li>
+
+       <li> <em>master tarballs</em>.
+
+               Whenever significant changes are incorporated a
+
+               <a href="releases/paraslash-git.tar.bz2">tarball</a>
+
+               of the current master branch is created. All changes in
+               this tarball will be included in the next release. Like
+               for regular releases, a configure script is provided
+               for convenience.
+
+       </li>
+
+       <li> <em>gitweb snapshots</em>.
+
+               The
+
+                       <a href="/gitweb/gitweb.cgi?p=.git;a=summary">gitweb</a>
+
+               page contains a snapshot link for each revision. This
+               allows to get a specific revision without downloading
+               the full history.
+
+       </li>
+</ul>