- More improvements by Morbus, Goba, TDobes et al:

Per TDobes' comments:

* INSTALL.txt corrected to use 4.3.3, not 4.33.
* .htaccess: removed allow_call_time_pass_reference. two confirmations that a) the setting was wrong in the first place, b) there were no adverse affects for the incorrect setting, c) the PHP docs say it is deprecated.
* .htaccess: removed short_open_tag. Running grep -r "<? " * across the entire directory tree of both core and contributions only brought up contributions and no core. I agree that the fuller form is better. The following contributions will need to be updated: modules/edit_template/edit_template.module, sandbox/garym/themes/marvin_2k/templates/page.tpl.php, sandbox/killes/compare.php, sandbox/paolino/import/click.php, themes/spreadfirefox/block.tpl.php. For error's sake, I also did a manual verification for "<?" (no space) across core and came up against nothing in addition to the above contribs.

Per Goba's comments:

* .htaccess: Moved session.auto_start back.
* sites/default/settings.php: Removed track_vars.

Per mailing list comments:

* INSTALL.txt: Added text about the files/ directory, creating it, and permissions.
* INSTALL.txt: Added an example of why Drupal requires cron (the search.module) in an attempt to justify why a crontab is a good, nay, required step.

And my own further analities:

* .htaccess: cleaned up some whitespace valleys (i hate 'em, hate 'em!) and fixed a few stray colons.
* settings.php: minor whitespace error.

.htaccess

@@ -18,26 +18,22 @@ ErrorDocument 404 /index.php
 # Set the default handler.
 DirectoryIndex index.php
 
-# Override PHP settings. More overrides exist in
-# sites/default/settings.php, but the following cannot be changed at 
-# runtime. The first IfModule is for Apache 1.3, the second for 
-# Apache 2.
+# Override PHP settings. More exist in sites/default/settings.php, but
+# the following cannot be changed at runtime. The first IfModule is
+# for Apache 1.3, the second for Apache 2.
 <IfModule mod_php4.c>
-   php_value allow_call_time_pass_reference  1
    php_value magic_quotes_gpc                0
    php_value register_globals                0
-   php_value short_open_tag                  1
+   php_value session.auto_start              0
 </IfModule>
 
 <IfModule sapi_apache2.c>
-   php_value allow_call_time_pass_reference  1
    php_value magic_quotes_gpc                0
    php_value register_globals                0
-   php_value short_open_tag                  1
+   php_value session.auto_start              0
 </IfModule>
 
-# Override mod_expires by reducing the time dynamically generated pages
-# are cache-able.
+# Reduce the time dynamically generated pages are cache-able.
 <IfModule mod_expires.c>
   ExpiresByType text/html A1
 </IfModule>
@@ -46,7 +42,7 @@ DirectoryIndex index.php
 <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
   RewriteEngine on
 
-  # Modify the RewriteBase if you are using Drupal in a subdirectory and 
+  # Modify the RewriteBase if you are using Drupal in a subdirectory and
   # the rewrite rules are not working properly.
   #RewriteBase /drupal
 
@@ -56,13 +52,13 @@ DirectoryIndex index.php
   #RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^id=([^&]+)$
   #RewriteRule node.php index.php?q=node/view/%1 [L]
 
-  # Rewrite old-style URLs of the form 'module.php?mod=x':
+  # Rewrite old-style URLs of the form 'module.php?mod=x'.
   #RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
   #RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
   #RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^mod=([^&]+)$
   #RewriteRule module.php index.php?q=%1 [L]
 
-  # Rewrite current-style URLs of the form 'index.php?q=x':
+  # Rewrite current-style URLs of the form 'index.php?q=x'.
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
   RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA]

INSTALL.txt

@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ CONTENTS OF THIS FILE
 REQUIREMENTS
 ------------
 
-Drupal requires a web server, PHP4 (4.33 or greater) or PHP5
+Drupal requires a web server, PHP4 (4.3.3 or greater) or PHP5
 (http://www.php.net/) and either MySQL (http://www.mysql.com/)
 or PostgreSQL (http://www.postgresql.org/).
 
@@ -182,17 +182,25 @@ INSTALLATION
 
 5. CONFIGURE DRUPAL
 
+   You should consider creating a "files" subdirectory in your Drupal
+   installation directory. This subdirectory stores files such as
+   custom logos, user avatars, and other media associated with your
+   new site. The sub-directory requires "read and write" permission
+   by the Drupal server process. You can change the name of this
+   subdirectory at "Administer > Settings > File system settings".
+
    You can now launch your browser and point it to your Drupal site.
 
    Create an account and login. The first account will automatically
-   become the main administrator account.
+   become the main administrator account with total control.
 
 6. CRON TASKS
 
-   Many Drupal modules have periodic tasks that must be triggered by a
-   cron job. To activate these tasks, you must call the cron page by
-   visiting http://www.example.com/cron.php -- this will pass control
-   to the modules and the modules will decide if and what they must do.
+   Many Drupal modules (such as the search functionality) have periodic
+   tasks that must be triggered by a cron job. To activate these tasks,
+   call the cron page by visiting http://www.example.com/cron.php --
+   this will pass control to the modules and the modules will decide if
+   and what they must do.
 
    Most systems support the crontab utility for scheduling tasks like
    this. The following example crontab line will activate the cron

sites/default/settings.php

@@ -75,13 +75,12 @@
  * be set at runtime (ie., when ini_set() occurs), read the PHP
  * documentation at http://www.php.net/manual/en/ini.php#ini.list
  * and take a look at the .htaccess file to see which non-runtime
- * settings are used there.Settings defined here should not be
+ * settings are used there. Settings defined here should not be
  * duplicated there so as to avoid conflict issues.
  */
 ini_set('arg_separator.output',     '&');
 ini_set('magic_quotes_runtime',     0);
 ini_set('magic_quotes_sybase',      0);
-ini_set('session.auto_start',       0);
 ini_set('session.cache_expire',     200000);
 ini_set('session.cache_limiter',    'none');
 ini_set('session.cookie_lifetime',  2000000);
@@ -89,7 +88,6 @@
 ini_set('session.save_handler',     'user');
 ini_set('session.use_only_cookies', 1);
 ini_set('session.use_trans_sid',    0);
-ini_set('track_vars',               1);
 
 /**
  * Variable overrides: