=pod

=head1 Getting Started

The simplest way to install Parrot is to use a pre-compiled binary for your
operating system or distribution. Packages are available for many systems,
including Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Mandriva, FreeBSD, Cygwin, and MacPorts. The
Parrot website lists all known packages.N<U<http://www.parrot.org/download>> A
binary installer for Windows is also available from the Parrot Win32
project on SourceForge.N<U<http://parrotwin32.sourceforge.net/>> 
If packages aren't available on your system, you can download a source
tarball for the latest supported
release from U<http://www.parrot.org/release/supported>.

You need a C compiler and a make utility to build Parrot from source code --
usually C<gcc> and C<make>, but Parrot can build with standard compiler
toolchains on different operating systems.  Perl 5.8 is also a prerequiste for
configuring and building Parrot.

X<compiling>
If you have these dependencies installed, build the core virtual machine and
compiler toolkit and run the standard test suite with the commands:

  $ perl Configure.pl
  $ make
  $ make test

X<installation>
By default, Parrot installs to directories F<bin/>, F<lib/>, and
F<include/> under F</usr/local>. If you have privileges to
write to these directories, install Parrot with:

  $ make install

To install Parrot in a different location, use the C<--prefix> option to
F<Configure.pl>:

    $ perl Configure.pl --prefix=/home/me/parrot

Setting the prefix to F</home/me/parrot> installs the Parrot executable
in F</home/me/parrot/bin/parrot>.

If you intend to develop a language on Parrot, install the Parrot
developer tools as well:

  $ make install-dev

X<.pir files>
Once you've installed Parrot, create a test file called
F<news.pir>.N<Files containing PIR code use the F<.pir> extension.>

=begin PIR

  .sub 'news'
    say "Here is the news for Parrots."
  .end

=end PIR

Now run this file with:

  $ parrot news.pir

which will print:

  Here is the news for Parrots.

=cut

X<tutorial>
The Parrot source distribution includes copious examples in its F<examples/>
directory.  In particular, a PIR tutorial is available in
F<examples/tutorial/>.

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