--- a/doc/interpreter/contrib.txi	Thu Jan 05 10:34:04 2012 -0500
+++ b/doc/interpreter/contrib.txi	Thu Jan 05 17:34:30 2012 -0500
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+@c Copyright (C) 2012 John W. Eaton
 @c Copyright (C) 2008-2012 Jaroslav Hajek
 @c
 @c This file is part of Octave.
@@ -25,6 +26,8 @@
 
 @menu
 * How to Contribute::
+* Building the Development Sources::
+* Basics of Generating a Changeset::
 * General Guidelines::
 * Octave Sources (m-files)::
 * C++ Sources::
@@ -41,6 +44,86 @@
 (@url{http://octave.sf.net}).  Note that the Octave project is
 inherently more conservative and follows narrower rules.
 
+@node Building the Development Sources
+@section Building the Development Sources
+
+In addition to all the tools (both optional and required) that are
+listed in @ref{Build Dependencies} you will need:
+
+@table @asis
+@item Mercurial
+Distributed version control system (@url{http://mercurial.selenic.com}).
+Octave's sources are stored in a Mercurial archive.
+
+@item Git
+Distributed version control system (@url{http://git-scm.com}).  The
+gnulib sources that Octave depends on are stored in a Git archive.
+@end table
+
+Once you have the required tools installed, you can build Octave by
+doing
+
+@itemize @bullet
+@item
+Check out a copy of the Octave sources:
+@example
+hg clone http://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave
+@end example
+
+@item
+Change to the top-level directory of the newly checked out sources:
+@example
+cd octave
+@end example
+
+@item
+Generate the necessary configuration files:
+@example
+./autogen.sh
+@end example
+
+@item
+Create a build directory and change to it:
+@example
+mkdir build
+cd build
+@end example
+By using a separate build directory, you will keep the source directory
+clean and it will be easy to completely remove all files generated by
+the build.  You can also have parallel build trees for different
+purposes that all share the same sources.  For example, one build tree
+may be configured to disable compiler optimization in order to allow for
+easier debugging while another may be configured to test building with
+other specialized compiler flags.
+
+@item
+Run Octave's configure script from the build directory:
+@example
+../configure
+@end example
+
+@item
+Run make in the build directory:
+@example
+make
+@end example
+@end itemize
+
+Once the build is finished, you will see a message like the following:
+
+@example
+@group
+Octave successfully built.  Now choose from the following:
+
+   ./run-octave    - to run in place to test before installing
+   make check      - to run the tests
+   make install    - to install (PREFIX=...)
+@end group
+@end example
+
+@node Basics of Generating a Changeset
+@section Basics of Generating a Changeset
+
 The preferable form of contribution is creating a Mercurial changeset
 and sending it via e-mail to the octave-maintainers mailing list.
 Mercurial is the source code management system currently used to develop

--- a/doc/interpreter/install.txi	Thu Jan 05 10:34:04 2012 -0500
+++ b/doc/interpreter/install.txi	Thu Jan 05 17:34:30 2012 -0500
@@ -44,7 +44,188 @@
 @cindex installing Octave
 
 The procedure for installing Octave from source on a Unix-like system is
-described below.  Building on other platforms will follow similar steps.
+described below.  Building on other platforms will follow similar
+steps.  Note that this description applies to Octave releases.  Building
+the development sources from the Mercurial archive requires additional
+steps as described in @ref{Building the Development Sources}.
+
+@menu
+* Build Dependencies::
+* Running Configure and Make::
+* Compiling Octave with 64-bit Indexing::
+* Installation Problems::
+@end menu
+
+@node Build Dependencies
+@section Build Dependencies
+
+Octave is a fairly large program with many build dependencies.  You may
+be able to find pre-packaged versions of the dependencies distributed as
+part of your system, or you may have to build some or all of them
+yourself.
+
+The following tools are required:
+
+@table @asis
+@item C++, C, and Fortran compilers
+The Octave sources are primarily written in C++, but some portions are
+also written in C and Fortran.  The Octave sources are intended to be
+portable.  Recent versions of the GNU compiler collection (GCC) should
+work (@url{http://gcc.gnu.org}).  If you use GCC, you should avoid
+mixing versions.  For example, be sure that you are not using the
+obsolete @code{g77} Fortran compiler with modern versions of @code{gcc}
+and @code{g++}.
+
+@item GNU Make
+Tool for building software (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/make}).
+Octave's build system requires GNU Make.  Other versions of Make will
+not work.  Fortunately, GNU Make is highly portable and easy to install.
+
+@item AWK, sed, and other Unix utilities
+Basic Unix system utilities are required for building Octave.  All will
+be available with any modern Unix system and also on Windows with either
+Cygwin or MinGW and MSYS.
+@end table
+
+Additionally, the following tools may be needed:
+
+@table @asis
+@item Bison
+Parser generator (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/bison}).
+You will need Bison if you modify the @code{oct-parse.yy} source file or
+if you delete the files that are generated from it.
+
+@item Flex
+Lexer analyzer (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/flex}).  You will need
+Flex if you modify the @code{lex.ll} source file or if you delete the
+files that are generated from it.
+
+@item Autoconf
+Package for software configuration
+(@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf}).  Autoconf is required if
+you modify Octave's @code{configure.ac} file or other files that it
+requires.
+
+@item Automake
+Package for Makefile generation
+(@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/automake}).  Automake is required if
+you modify Octave's @code{Makefile.am} files or other files that they
+depend on.
+
+@item Libtool
+Package for building software libraries
+(@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/libtool}).  Libtool is required by
+Automake.
+@end table
+
+The following external packages are required:
+
+@table @asis
+@item PCRE
+The Perl Compatible Reular Expression library (http://www.pcre.org).
+@item BLAS
+Basic Linear Algebra Subroutine library
+(@url{http://www.netlib.org/blas}).  Accelerated BLAS libraries such as
+ATLAS (@url{http://math-atlas.sourceforge.net}) are recommeded for
+better performance.
+@item LAPACK
+Linear Algebra Package (@url{http://www.netlib.org/lapack}).
+@end table
+
+The following external package is optional but strongly recommended:
+
+@table @asis
+@item GNU Readline
+Command-line editing library (@url{www.gnu.org/s/readline}).
+@end table
+
+If you wish to build Octave without GNU readline installed, you must use
+the @code{--disable-readline} option when running the configure script.
+
+The following external software packages are optional but recommended:
+
+@table @asis
+@item ARPACK
+Library for the solution of large-scale eigenvalue problems
+(@url{http://forge.scilab.org/index.php/p/arpack-ng}).  ARPACK is
+required to provide the functions @code{eigs} and @code{svds}.
+
+@item cURL
+Library for transferring data with URL syntax
+(@url{http://curl.haxx.se}). cURL is required to provide the
+@code{urlread} and @code{urlwrite} functions and the @code{ftp} class.
+
+@item FFTW3
+Library for computing discrete Fourier transforms
+(@url{http://www.fftw.org}).  FFTW3 is used to provide better
+performance for functions that compute discrete Fourier transforms
+(@code{fft}, @code{ifft}, @code{fft2}, etc.)
+
+@item FLTK
+Portable GUI toolkit (@url{http://www.fltk.org}).  FLTK is currently
+used to provide windows for Octave's OpenGL-based graphics functions.
+
+@item fontconfig
+Library for configuring and customizing font access
+(@url{http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/fontconfig}).  Fontconfig
+is used to manage fonts for Octave's OpenGL-based graphics functions.
+
+@item FreeType
+Portable font engine (@url{http://www.freetype.org}).  FreeType is used
+to peform font rendering Octave's OpenGL-based graphics functions.
+
+@item GLPK
+GNU Linear Programming Kit (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/glpk}).
+GPLK is required for the function @code{glpk}.
+
+@item gnuplot
+Interactive graphics program (@url{http://www.gnuplot.info}).  gnuplot
+is currently the default graphics renderer for Octave.
+
+@item GraphicsMagick++
+Image processing library (@url{http://www.graphicsmagick.org}).
+GraphicsMagick++ is used to provide the @code{imread} and @code{imwrite}
+functions.
+
+@item HDF5
+Library for manipulating portable data files
+(@url{http://www.hdfgroup.org/HDF5}).  HDF5 is required for Octave's
+@code{save} and @code{load} commands to write and read HDF data files.
+
+@item OpenGL
+API for portable 2D and 3D graphics (@url{http://www.opengl.org}).  An
+OpenGL implementation is required to provide Octave's OpenGL-based
+graphics functions.  Octave's OpenGL-based graphics functions usually
+outperform the gnuplot-based graphics functions because plot data can be
+rendered directly instead of sending data and commands to gnuplot for
+interpretation and rendering.
+
+@item Qhull
+Computational geometry library (@url{http://www.qhull.org}).  Qhull is
+required to provide the functions @code{convhull}, @code{convhulln}, 
+@code{delaunay}, @code{delaunay3}, @code{delaunayn}, @code{voronoi}, and
+@code{voronoin}.
+
+@item QRUPDATE
+QR factorization updating library
+(@url{http://sourceforge.net/projects/qrupdate}).  QRUPDATE is used to
+provide improved performance for the functions @code{qrdelete},
+@code{qrinsert}, @code{qrshift}, and @code{qrupdate}.
+
+@item SuiteSparse
+Sparse matrix factorization library
+(@url{http://www.cise.ufl.edu/research/sparse/SuiteSparse}).
+SuiteSparse is required to provide sparse matrix factorizations and
+solution of linear equations for sparse systems.
+
+@item zlib
+Data compression library (@url{http://zlib.net}).  The zlib library is
+required for Octave's @code{load} and @code{save} commands to handle
+compressed data, including @sc{Matlab} v5 MAT files.
+@end table
+
+@node Running Configure and Make
+@section Running Configure and Make
 
 @itemize @bullet
 @item
@@ -314,13 +495,8 @@
 @end table
 @end itemize
 
-@menu
-* Compiling Octave with 64-bit Indexing::       
-* Installation Problems::       
-@end menu
-
 @node Compiling Octave with 64-bit Indexing  
-@appendixsec Compiling Octave with 64-bit Indexing
+@section Compiling Octave with 64-bit Indexing
 
 Note: the following only applies to systems that have 64-bit pointers.
 Configuring Octave with @option{--enable-64} cannot magically make a
@@ -585,7 +761,7 @@
 @end itemize
 
 @node Installation Problems
-@appendixsec Installation Problems
+@section Installation Problems
 
 This section contains a list of problems (and some apparent problems
 that don't really mean anything is wrong) that may show up during

--- a/doc/interpreter/octave.texi	Thu Jan 05 10:34:04 2012 -0500
+++ b/doc/interpreter/octave.texi	Thu Jan 05 17:34:30 2012 -0500
@@ -860,6 +860,8 @@
 Contributing Guidelines
 
 * How to Contribute::
+* Building the Development Sources::
+* Basics of Generating a Changeset::
 * General Guidelines::
 * Octave Sources (m-files)::
 * C++ Sources::
@@ -880,6 +882,9 @@
 
 Installation
 
+* Build Dependencies::
+* Running Configure and Make::
+* Compiling Octave with 64-bit Indexing::       
 * Installation Problems::       
 
 Emacs Octave Support