diff --git a/README.svn b/README.svn
index 3f415b8fd8..a83a19ffb5 100644
--- a/README.svn
+++ b/README.svn
@@ -4,20 +4,25 @@ Miguel de Icaza who adapted them from guidelines written by
 Owen Taylor.
 
  + In order to build GnuCash from SVN, you need to run the autogen.sh
-   command to generate and execute a configure script.  When building
-   from SVN you should ALWAYS pass your configure options directly to
-   autogen.sh.  For example:
+   command to generate a configure script and other files. autogen.sh does
+   NOT accept any options but it may output some options that you should
+   add to your own ./configure command.
 
-	./autogen.sh --enable-ofx --enable-opt-style-install --prefix=/opt/gnucash
+   For example:
 
-   Autogen will automatically generate the configure script and then
-   run it WITH SPECIAL ARGUMENTS to make sure certain files get built.
+	./autogen.sh
+
+	./configure --enable-maintainer-mode --enable-error-on-warning \
+	--enable-compiler-warnings --enable-ofx --enable-opt-style-install \
+	--prefix=/opt/gnucash
+
+   Autogen will automatically generate the configure script but you must
+   run it WITH SPECIAL ARGUMENTS to make sure that certain files get built.
    If you run "configure" without these special arguments, it is very likely
-   that GnuCash will fail to build.  Therefore, do not run configure by
-   hand.
+   that GnuCash will fail to build.
 
    If in doubt, you can run autogen.sh, run ./configure --help,
-   then re-run autogen.sh with your options.
+   then re-run ./configure with your options.
 
  + Some versions of gettextize don't deal well with re-running themselves.
    You will see this as an error like:
@@ -95,3 +100,7 @@ June 21, 2002
 
 Derek Atkins
 November 21, 2002
+
+Neil Williams
+November 6th, 2005
+
diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index b4a6710144..cbeb61bfc9 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -74,8 +74,11 @@ AM_GLIB_GNU_GETTEXT
 
 
 AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
-AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR(macros)
 
+# Enable only when we have autoconf --version >= 2.59
+# on all platforms. Note that AC_PREREQ(2.59) may be
+# insufficient to actually use v2.59 on OSX
+#AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR(macros)
 
 AC_PROG_INSTALL
 
@@ -169,6 +172,8 @@ AC_SUBST(DL_LIB)
 #AC_SEARCH_LIBS(gettext, intl, ,[
 #	AC_MSG_ERROR([Cannot find gettext -- do you need to build -lintl?])], )
 
+AC_SUBST(SED)
+
 AC_MSG_CHECKING(for darwin)
 case $host_os in
 	rhapsody* | darwin1*)
@@ -177,20 +182,10 @@ case $host_os in
 update to latest  darwin])
 		;;
 	darwin*)
-     dnl Use fink under MacOS X to find popt
-     AC_MSG_CHECKING(for fink support)
-     if test -d "/sw/lib" -a -d "/sw/include"; then
-        AM_CFLAGS="$AM_CFLAGS -I/sw/include"
-        LDFLAGS="$LDFLAGS -L/sw/lib"
-        AC_MSG_RESULT(yes)
-    else
-        AC_MSG_RESULT(no)
-    fi
-    AC_CHECK_HEADERS(popt.h)
+                AC_CHECK_HEADERS(popt.h)
 		AC_MSG_RESULT([yes, patching libtool to always build dylibs])
 		mv libtool libtool.old
-		sed -e 's/^deplibs_check_method.*/deplibs_check_method=pass_all/g' \
-			-e 's|^archive_cmds.*|archive_cmds="$CC -dynamiclib \\$allow_undefined_flag -o \\$lib \\$libobjs \\$deplibs\\$linker_flags -install_name \\$rpath/\\$soname \\$verstring"|g' \
+		${SED} -e 's/^deplibs_check_method.*/deplibs_check_method=pass_all/g' \
 			-e 's|^library_names_spec.*|library_names_spec="\\$libname\\$release\\$versuffix.dylib \\$libname\\$release\\${major}.dylib \\$libname.dylib"|g' \
 			-e 's|^soname_spec.*|soname_spec="\\$libname\\$release\\$major.dylib"|g' \
 			< libtool.old > libtool
@@ -1075,8 +1070,8 @@ dnl if Mac OSX, also scrub /sw/include
 dnl GIVEN_CFLAGS=$(echo $GIVEN_CFLAGS | sed -e "s;-I/sw/include ;;" | sed -e "s;-I/sw/include$;;")
 case $host_os in
 	darwin*)
-		GTKHTML_CFLAGS=$(echo $GTKHTML_CFLAGS | sed -e "s;-I/sw/include ;;" | sed -e "s;-I/sw/include$;;")
-		GTKHTML_CFLAGS=$(echo $GTKHTML_CFLAGS | sed -e "s;-I/sw/include/gtkhtml ;;" | sed -e "s;-I/sw/includ/gtkhtmle$;;")
+		GTKHTML_CFLAGS=$(echo $GTKHTML_CFLAGS | ${SED} -e "s;-I/sw/include ;;" | ${SED} -e "s;-I/sw/include$;;")
+		GTKHTML_CFLAGS=$(echo $GTKHTML_CFLAGS | ${SED} -e "s;-I/sw/include/gtkhtml ;;" | ${SED} -e "s;-I/sw/includ/gtkhtmle$;;")
 		;;
 esac
     AC_SUBST(GTKHTML_CFLAGS)