Read Me

            FREECOL

An Open Source Colonization Clone
=================================

I.   Requirements
II.  Compiling FreeCol
III. Running FreeCol
IV.  Troubleshooting
V.   Help, Feedback & Bug Reports
VI.  About


I.   Requirements
=================================
The program is written in Java. It can be run with any Java
Runtime Environment (JRE) that is at least version 1.4.0.
The JRE (or JVM) can be downloaded from:
http://java.sun.com/getjava/download.html

In order to compile the game, you'll also need Apache Ant,
as well as a Java Development Kit (JDK).
get them at:
http://ant.apache.org
http://java.sun.com/downloads/


II.  Compiling FreeCol
=================================
Launch a command prompt and go to the directory named
'freecol-x.y.z' where 'x.y.z' is FreeCol's current version
number.
Get over to the 'java' directory and execute the Ant build
script by entering 'ant'.


III. Running FreeCol
=================================
Launch a command prompt and go to the directory named
'freecol-x.y.z' where 'x.y.z' is FreeCol's current version
number.
Make sure the file named 'FreeCol.jar' is present by
executing the command 'ls -l' when using Linux/Unix or 'dir'
when using Windows (the file name should be listed).

Execute the command 'java -jar FreeCol.jar'

Windows users may need to execute
'java -cp . -jar FreeCol.jar'

Windows users may be able to just double click the file
'FreeCol.jar' from within Windows Explorer.


IV.  Troubleshooting
=================================
<Will be written when common problems are known>


V.   Help, Feedback & Bug Reports
=================================
Help
----
If you need help with anything related to FreeCol that is not
yet documented somewhere then you can send an e-mail to the
mailing list: freecol-users@lists.sourceforge.net

Feedback
--------
General Feedback is very much appreciated. Send an e-mail to
freecol-users@lists.sourceforge.net if you want to provide feedback.

Bug Reports
-----------
FreeCol is currently still beta software and may contain some
bugs. If the client should hang/freeze/crash then remember
that you can always press <Control>-<Alt>-<Backspace> or
<Control>-<Alt>-<F1 or F2, ...> when using Linux/Unix or
<Control>-<Alt>-<Delete> when using Windows. If you manage to
close FreeCol in this way or if you encounter less serious
problems then you can provide the developers with information on
the problem you've had by entering the following data as a bug
report at FreeCol's Sourceforge page at
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=add&group_id=43225&atid=435578

- Detailed description of the problem you've had
- Contents of the file 'FreeCol.log' which can be found in the
  directory from which you launched the client


VI.  About
=================================
Content is (C) 2002-2003 The FreeCol Team
The authors of FreeCol can be found in the 'AUTHORS' file.
FreeCol's homepage can be found at http://freecol.sourceforge.net