cleaning up build instruction files

1 files changed, 45 insertions, 21 deletions

diff --git a/cpp/BuildInstructionsMinGW.md b/cpp/BuildInstructionsMinGW.md
index 38d371fbc17..e0e3778c17e 100644
--- a/cpp/BuildInstructionsMinGW.md
+++ b/cpp/BuildInstructionsMinGW.md
@@ -1,53 +1,67 @@
 # Building Ice for C++ with MinGW
 
-> *MinGW is only supported for building the Ice extension for Ruby. It is not supported for general application development. If you prefer, you can install a [Ruby gem](https://doc.zeroc.com/display/Ice36/Using+the+Ruby+Distribution) that contains a complete Ice for Ruby run-time.*
+> *MinGW is only supported for building the Ice extension for Ruby. It is not
+supported for general application development. If you prefer, you can install
+a [Ruby gem][1] that contains a complete Ice for Ruby run-time.*
 
-## Build Requirements for MinGW
+## Build Requirements
 
 ### Compiler
 
 Ice for C++ was tested with the following MinGW compilers:
 
-- [mingw 4.7.3 32-bit](http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingwbuilds/files/host-windows/releases/4.7.3/32-bit/threads-win32/sjlj/x32-4.7.3-release-win32-sjlj-rev1.7z/download)
-- mingw 4.7.2 64-bit, included in the [Ruby Development Kit](http://rubyinstaller.org/downloads/) version 4.7.2
+- [mingw 4.7.3 32-bit][2]
+- mingw 4.7.2 64-bit, included in the [Ruby Development Kit][3] version 4.7.2
 
-> *mingw 4.7.2 32-bit, included in the 32-bit Ruby Development Kit version 4.7.2, contains a very severe bug that makes it unsuitable to build Ice.*
+> *mingw 4.7.2 32-bit, included in the 32-bit Ruby Development Kit version 4.7.2,
+contains a very severe bug that makes it unsuitable to build Ice.*
 
 ### Third-Party Libraries
 
 Ice has dependencies on the following third-party libraries:
 
- - [bzip](http://bzip.org) 1.0
- - [mcpp](https://github.com/zeroc-ice/mcpp) 2.7.2 (with patches)
+ - [bzip][4] 1.0
+ - [mcpp][5] 2.7.2 (with patches)
 
-You do not need to build these packages yourself, as ZeroC supplies a separate [Windows installer](https://zeroc.com/download.html) that contains release and debug libraries for all of the third-party dependencies.
+You do not need to build these packages yourself, as ZeroC supplies a separate
+[Windows installer][6] that contains release and debug libraries for all of the
+third-party dependencies.
 
-## Compiling and Testing Ice with MinGW
+## Compiling and Testing Ice
 
-The Ice build system for MinGW builds only a small subset of Ice for C++, namely the core run time libraries (Ice, IceUtil, IceDiscovery, IceSSL), slice2cpp, slice2rb and the corresponding tests.
+The Ice build system for MinGW builds only a small subset of Ice for C++, namely
+the core run time libraries (Ice, IceUtil, IceDiscovery, IceSSL), slice2cpp,
+slice2rb and the corresponding tests.
 
 ### Building Ice
 
-In a command window, change to the ```cpp``` subdirectory:
+In a command window, change to the `cpp` subdirectory:
 
     > cd cpp
 
-Run the ```devkitvars.bat``` batch file from the Ruby development kit to set up your environment. For example, if you installed the development kit in ```C:\RubyDevKit-4.7.2```, run the following:
+Run the `devkitvars.bat` batch file from the Ruby development kit to set up your
+environment. For example, if you installed the development kit in
+`C:\RubyDevKit-4.7.2`, run the following:
 
     > C:\RubyDevKit-4.7.2\devkitvars.bat
 
 If you are building for Windows 32-bit:
 
-- Add mingw 4.7.3 to your PATH, before the mingw 4.7.2 included in the Ruby development kit. For example, if you installed mingw 4.7.3 in ```C:\mingw-4.7.3```, run the following:
+- Add mingw 4.7.3 to your PATH, before the mingw 4.7.2 included in the Ruby
+development kit. For example, if you installed mingw 4.7.3 in `C:\mingw-4.7.3`,
+run the following:
 
-   ```> set PATH=C:\mingw-4.7.3\bin;%PATH%```
+        > set PATH=C:\mingw-4.7.3\bin;%PATH%
 
 - Then double-check the desired version of g++ is in your PATH:
 
-   ```> g++ -dumpversion
-   4.7.3```
+        > g++ -dumpversion
+        4.7.3
 
-Edit ```config\Make.rules``` to establish your build configuration. The comments in the file provide more information. In particular, if Ice third-party packages are not installed in the default location, set ```THIRDPARTY_HOME``` to the Ice third-party installation directory.
+Edit `config\Make.rules` to establish your build configuration. The comments
+in the file provide more information. In particular, if Ice third-party
+packages are not installed in the default location, set `THIRDPARTY_HOME` to
+the Ice third-party installation directory.
 
 Now you are ready to build Ice:
 
@@ -55,12 +69,22 @@ Now you are ready to build Ice:
 
 ### Running the Test Suite
 
-Python is required to run the test suite. After a successful build, you can run the tests as follows:
+Python is required to run the test suite. After a successful build, you can run
+the tests as follows:
 
     > python allTests.py
 
-If everything worked out, you should see lots of ```ok``` messages. In case of a failure, the tests abort with ```failed```.
+If everything worked out, you should see lots of `ok` messages. In case of a
+failure, the tests abort with `failed`.
 
-## Installing a C++ Source Build for MinGW
+## Installing a C++ Source Build
 
-Simply run ```make install``` from a command prompt. This will install Ice in the directory specified by the prefix variable in ```config\Make.rules```.
+Simply run `make install` from a command prompt. This will install Ice in the
+directory specified by the `prefix` variable in `config\Make.rules`.
+
+[1]: https://doc.zeroc.com/display/Ice36/Using+the+Ruby+Distribution
+[2]: http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingwbuilds/files/host-windows/releases/4.7.3/32-bit/threads-win32/sjlj/x32-4.7.3-release-win32-sjlj-rev1.7z/download
+[3]: http://rubyinstaller.org/downloads
+[4]: http://bzip.org
+[5]: https://github.com/zeroc-ice/mcpp
+[6]: https://zeroc.com/download.html