diff --git a/.INSTALL.in b/.INSTALL.in
index 5a2e7dcaf..893ad6457 100755
--- a/.INSTALL.in
+++ b/.INSTALL.in
@@ -2,13 +2,14 @@
#
# INSTALL - installation instructions and installation script.
#
-# You need GNU C (version 3.4.x or later -- note however that version 4.0 will
-# not work) and GNU Make (3.69 or later).
-# Make sure that they are somewhere in your PATH. It is also helpful if you
-# have GNU Readline or NetBSD Editline (libedit) installed in one of the
-# standard locations (normally /usr/local or /usr), but this is not essential.
-#
-# The source distributions for GNU C, GNU Make, and GNU Readline are
+# You need a C compiler such as the GNU C compiler (gcc, version 3.4.x
+# or later -- note however that version 4.0 will not work) and GNU Make
+# (3.69 or later). Make sure that they are somewhere in your PATH.
+# It is also helpful if you have GNU Readline or NetBSD Editline (libedit)
+# installed in one of the standard locations (normally /usr/local or /usr),
+# but this is not essential.
+#
+# The source distributions for gcc, GNU Make, and GNU Readline are
# available from . The source distribution for
# NetBSD Editline is available from .
# Binaries for the above are included in almost all Linux distributions,
@@ -18,8 +19,7 @@
# Step 0. Extract the files from the gzipped tar archive.
#
# NOTE: do not extract the archive into a directory whose absolute
-# pathname contains spaces as this will cause the installation to
-# fail.
+# pathname contains spaces, as this will cause the installation to fail.
#
# Step 1. Run `configure'. (Just type `sh configure'.)
#