For Unix In most cases you should use: CFLAGS=your best optimizing switches export CFLAGS #note that first two lines are usually not needed in case you use #gnu c compiler where AA-lib uses quite good ones automatically ./configure make make install see help for configure in case of problems For DOS: you need to compile vga/text libraries: (available at AA-lib homepage http://aa-project.sourceforge.net/aalib/) cd ../vga make cd ../text make then you can finally compile AA-lib cd os2 ; make -f makefile.dos then you should copy libaa.a libvga.a or libtext.a to your lib directory and libaa.h to your include directory All programs in AA-project expects AA-lib,vga and text archive in uncompressed and compiled in same directory as sources of them