Add INSTALL.md for installation troubleshooting

hdgarrood · hdgarrood · commit 37b4fcb52a5c · 2015-08-08T19:35:10.000+01:00
diff --git a/INSTALL.md b/INSTALL.md
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+# Installation information
+
+If you are having difficulty installing the PureScript compiler, feel free to
+ask for help! A good place is the #purescript IRC channel on Freenode, or
+alternatively Stack Overflow.
+
+## Using prebuilt binaries
+
+The prebuilt binaries are compiled with GHC 7.8.3, and therefore they should
+run on any operating system supported by GHC 7.8.3, such as:
+
+* Windows 2000 or later,
+* OS X 10.7 or later,
+* Linux ??? (we're not sure what the minimum version is).
+
+This list is not exhaustive. If your OS is too old or not listed, or if the
+binaries fail to run, you may be able to install the compiler by building it
+from source; see below.
+
+It's probably safe to assume that other prebuilt distributions (eg, Homebrew,
+Chocolatey, AUR, npm) use the same binaries, and therefore have the same
+requirements.
+
+## Compiling from source
+
+GHC 7.6.1 or newer is required to compile from source. The easiest way is to
+use `cabal-install`:
+
+```
+$ cabal update && cabal install purescript
+```
+
+The PureScript compiler has been known to run on OS X 10.6 when built with GHC
+7.6.
+
+## The "curses" library
+
+`psci` depends on the `curses` library (via the Haskell package `terminfo`). If
+you are having difficulty running the compiler, it may be because the `curses`
+library is missing.
+
+On Linux, you will probably need to install `ncurses` manually. On Ubuntu, for
+example, this can be done by running:
+
+```
+$ sudo apt-get install libncurses5-dev
+```
