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+========================
+README for the eric6 IDE
+========================
+
+1. Installation
+---------------
+Installing eric6 is a simple process. Just execute the ``install.py`` script
+(type ``python install.py -h`` for some help). Please note that the
+installation has to be performed using the administrators account (i.e. root
+on linux). This installs a wrapper script called eric6 in the standard
+executable directory.
+
+If you want to uninstall the package just execute the ``uninstall.py`` script.
+This gets rid of all installed files. In this case please send an email to the
+below mentioned address and tell me your reason. This might give me a hint on
+how to improve eric6.
+
+eric6 may be used with any combination of Python 3 or 2, Qt5 or Qt4 and
+PyQt5 or PyQt4. If the required packages (Qt5/4, QScintilla2, sip and PyQt5/4)
+are not installed, please get them and install them in the following order
+(order is important).
+
+1. Install Qt5 (from The Qt Company)
+
+2. Build and install QScintilla2 (from Riverbank Computing)
+
+3. Build and install sip (from Riverbank Computing)
+
+4. Build and install PyQt5 (from Riverbank Computing)
+
+5. Build and install QScintilla2 Python bindings
+ (part of the QScintilla2 package)
+
+6. Install eric6
+
+If you want to use the interfaces to other supported software packages, you may
+install them in any order and at any time.
+
+Please note, that the QScintilla2 Python bindings have to be rebuild, if
+the PyQt5 package gets updated. If this step is omitted, a bunch of strange
+errors will occur.
+
+1.1 Installation on Windows®
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+**Note:** This section is valid for PyQt4 and PyQt5 before 5.7.0.
+
+Installing eric6 on Windows® is even easier. Just download the PyQt5
+installer from Riverbank Computing and use it to install PyQt5. This includes
+all the required Qt5 libraries and tools as well as QScintilla. Once
+this installation is completed install eric6. That's all.
+
+1.2 Installation using PyQt5 wheels
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+**Note:** This section is valid for PyQt5 5.7.0 or newer.
+
+Installing eric6 and its pre-requisites is even easier using the PyQt5 Python
+wheels. In order to have access to the suite of Qt tools and documentation it
+is recommended to install the Qt development environment. These tools are not
+part of the PyQt5 wheels. Users of the Windows® operating system may use the
+'pyqt5-tools' wheel available via the Python Package Index (PyPI) as of
+2017-05-12.
+
+1.2.1 Installation of Qt Tools via Qt online installer
+======================================================
+1. Download the Qt online installer from the Qt download site.
+
+2. Install Qt by executing the installer.
+
+1.2.2 Installation of Qt Tools via PyPI
+=======================================
+1. Install the Qt tools by entering this command in a command window::
+
+ pip install pyqt5-tools
+
+1.2.3 Installation of PyQt5 and eric
+====================================
+1. Install the eric6 pre-requisites (PyQt, sip and QScintilla) by entering
+ this command in a shell / command window::
+
+ pip install qscintilla
+
+ or ::
+
+ pip3 install qscintilla
+
+ This will install QScintilla and all dependencies, which are PyQt5 and sip.
+
+2. Install eric6 and configure the path to the Qt tools on the Qt page of the
+ configuration dialog.
+
+3. Once the eric6 IDE is started the Qt documentation may be loaded into the
+ eric web browser via the ``Settings ➡ Mange Qt Help Documents`` menu entry.
+
+2. Installation of translations
+-------------------------------
+Translations of the eric6 IDE are available as separate downloads. There
+are two ways to install them.
+
+The first possibility is to install them together with eric6. In order
+to do that, simply extract the downloaded archives into the same place
+as the eric6 archive and follow the installation instructions above.
+
+The second possibility is to install them separately. Extract the
+downloaded archives and execute the install-i18n.py script (type
+``python install-i18n.py -h`` for some help). This way you can make the
+translations available to everybody or just to the user executing the
+installation command (if using the -p switch).
+
+3. Running
+----------
+Just call up eric6, which will start the IDE. Use the "what is"-help
+(arrow with ?) to get some help. The eric web site provides some
+documents describing certain aspects of eric. To start the unit test module in
+a standalone variant simply call up eric6_unittest. This will show the same
+dialog (though with a little bit less functionality) as if started from within
+eric6. The web browser can be started as a standalone program by executing the
+eric6_webbrowser script.
+
+Please note, the first time you start eric6 it will recognize, that it
+hasn't been configured yet and will show the configuration dialog.
+Please take your time and go through all the configuration items.
+However, every configuration option has a meaningful default value.
+
+4. Running from the sources
+---------------------------
+If you want to run eric6 from within the source tree you have to execute
+the ``compileUiFiles.py`` script once after a fresh checkout from the source
+repository or when new dialogs have been added. Thereafter just execute
+the ``eric6.py`` script.
+
+5. Tray starter
+---------------
+eric6 comes with a little utility called "eric6_tray". This embeds an icon
+in the system tray, which contains a context menu to start eric6 and all
+it's utilities. Double clicking this icon starts the eric6 IDE.
+
+6. Autocompletion/Calltips
+--------------------------
+eric6 provides an interface to the QScintilla auto-completion and calltips
+functionality. QScintilla2 comes with API files for Python and itself. PyQt4
+and PyQt5 contain API files as well. These are installed by default, if the
+correct installation order (see above) is followed. An API file for eric6 is
+installed in the same place.
+
+In order to use autocompletion and calltips in eric6 please configure these
+functions in the "Preferences Dialog" on the "Editor -> APIs",
+"Editor -> Autocompletion" and "Editor -> Calltips" pages.
+
+7. Remote Debugger
+------------------
+In order to enable the remote debugger start eric6, open the preferences
+dialog and configure the settings on the debugger pages.
+
+The remote login must be possible without any further interaction (i.e.
+no password prompt). If the remote setup differs from the local one you
+must configure the Python interpreter and the Debug Client to be used
+in the Preferences dialog. Use the ``install-debugclients.py`` script
+to install the debug client files and set the entries of the a.m.
+configuration page accordingly.
+
+To ease the installation process of the debug client, the eric6 sources
+include the script ``install-debugclients.py``.
+
+8. Passive Debugging
+--------------------
+Passive debugging mode allows the startup of the debugger from outside
+of the IDE. The IDE waits for a connection attempt. For further details
+see the file README-passive-debugging.rst.
+
+9. Plug-in System
+-----------------
+eric6 contains a plug-in system, that is used to extend eric6's
+functionality. Some plug-ins are part of eric6. Additional plugins
+are available via the Internet. Please use the built-in plug-in
+repository dialog to get a list of available (official) plug-ins
+and to download them. For more details about the plug-in system
+please see the documentation area.
+
+10. Interfaces to additional software packages
+----------------------------------------------
+At the moment eric6 provides interfaces to the following software
+packages.
+
+ Qt-Designer
+ This is part of the Qt distribution and is used to generate user
+ interfaces.
+
+ Qt-Linguist
+ This is part of the Qt distribution and is used to generate
+ translations.
+
+ Qt-Assistant
+ This is part of the Qt distribution and may be used to display help
+ files.
+
+ Mercurial
+ This is a distributed version control system available from
+ <http://www.mercurial-scm.org>. It is the one used by eric6 itself.
+
+ Subversion
+ This is a version control system available from
+ <http://subversion.apache.org>. eric6 supports two different Subversion
+ interfaces. One is using the svn command line tool, the other is using
+ the PySvn Python interface <pysvn.tigris.org>. The selection is done
+ automatically depending on the installed software. The PySvn interface
+ is prefered. This automatism can be overridden an a per project basis
+ using the "User Properties" dialog.
+
+ coverage.py
+ This is a tool to check Python code coverage. A slightly modified
+ version is part of the eric6 distribution. The original version is
+ available from <http://www.nedbatchelder.com/code/modules/coverage.html>
+
+ tabnanny
+ This is a tool to check Python code for white-space related problems.
+ It is part of the standard Python installation.
+
+ profile
+ This is part of the standard Python distribution and is used to profile
+ Python source code.
+
+11. Internationalization
+------------------------
+eric6 and its tools are prepared to show the UI in different languages, which
+can be configured via the preferences dialog. The Qt and QScintilla
+translations are searched in the translations directory given in the
+preferences dialog (Qt page). If the translations cannot be found, some part
+of the MMI might show English texts even if you have selected something else.
+If you are missing eric6 translations for your language and are willing to
+volunteer for this work please send me an email naming the country code and
+I will send you the respective Qt-Linguist file.
+
+12. Window Layout
+-----------------
+eric6 provides different window layouts. In these layouts, the shell window
+and the file browser may be embedded or be separat windows.
+
+13. Source code documentation
+-----------------------------
+eric6 has a built in source code documentation generator, which is
+usable via the commandline as well. For further details please see
+the file README-eric6-doc.rst.
+
+14. License
+-----------
+eric6 (and the others) is released under the conditions of the GPL. See
+separate license file for more details. Third party software included in
+eric6 is released under their respective license and contained in the
+eric6 distribution for convenience.
+
+15. Bugs and other reports
+--------------------------
+Please send bug reports, feature requests or contributions to eric bugs
+address. After the IDE is installed you can use the "Report Bug..."
+entry of the Help menu, which will send an email to
+<eric-bugs@eric-ide.python-projects.org. To request a new feature use the
+"Request Feature..." entry of the Help menu, which will send an email to
+<eric-featurerequest@eric-ide.python-projects.org.
+
+Alternatively bugs may be reported via the eric6 issue tracker at
+<https://die-offenbachs.homelinux.org/issues/>.
