diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 4041b2ba..ed5a0866 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -34,9 +34,10 @@ default: all
 all: dist
 
 dist: OpenJPEG
-	cp *.a dist
-	cp *.so dist
-	cp libopenjpeg/openjpeg.h dist
+	mkdir dist
+	cp *.a dist/
+	cp *.so dist/
+	cp libopenjpeg/openjpeg.h dist/
 
 dos2unix:
 	@$(DOS2UNIX) $(SRCS) $(INCLS)
@@ -59,10 +60,13 @@ install:
 	ldconfig
 
 clean:
-	rm -f core dist/*.* u2dtmp* $(MODULES) $(STATICLIB) $(SHAREDLIB) $(LIBNAME)
+	rm -rf core dist/ u2dtmp* $(MODULES) $(STATICLIB) $(SHAREDLIB) $(LIBNAME)
 
 osx:
 	make -f Makefile.osx
 
 osxinstall:
 	make -f Makefile.osx install
+
+osxclean:
+	make -f Makefile.osx clean
diff --git a/Makefile.osx b/Makefile.osx
index 7b9bab25..ba2239b9 100644
--- a/Makefile.osx
+++ b/Makefile.osx
@@ -31,9 +31,10 @@ default: all
 all: dist
 
 dist: OpenJPEG
-	cp *.a dist
-	cp *.dylib dist
-	cp libopenjpeg/openjpeg.h dist
+	mkdir dist
+	cp *.a dist/
+	cp *.dylib dist/
+	cp libopenjpeg/openjpeg.h dist/
 
 OpenJPEG: $(STATICLIB) $(SHAREDLIB)
 
@@ -50,8 +51,8 @@ install:
 	install -m 644 -o root -g wheel $(STATICLIB) $(INSTALLDIR)
 	install -m 755 -o root -g wheel $(SHAREDLIB) $(INSTALLDIR)
 	ln -sf $(SHAREDLIB) $(INSTALLDIR)/$(LIBNAME)
-	ldconfig
+	ranlib $(INSTALLDIR)/$(STATICLIB)
 
 clean:
-	rm -f core dist/*.* u2dtmp* $(MODULES) $(STATICLIB) $(SHAREDLIB) $(LIBNAME)
+	rm -rf core dist/ u2dtmp* $(MODULES) $(STATICLIB) $(SHAREDLIB) $(LIBNAME)
 	
diff --git a/README.linux b/README.linux
index d51ff5d4..2fff9b55 100644
--- a/README.linux
+++ b/README.linux
@@ -22,3 +22,11 @@ make install
 3) Clean all files produced during the build process
 make clean
 
+Simple codec compilation
+------------------------
+Once you've built the library, you might want to test it with a basic codec. To do this, go to the codec directory and use one of the following commands to build an encoder and decoder respectively:
+
+gcc convert.c image_to_j2k.c -o image_to_j2k -lopenjpeg -I ../libopenjpeg/ -lm
+gcc convert.c j2k_to_image.c -o j2k_to_image -lopenjpeg -I ../libopenjpeg/ -lm
+
+You should add '-L..' to those lines if you did not use the 'install' target (and the 'clean' target neither...).
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/README.osx b/README.osx
index 0a345e7b..0401d8f5 100644
--- a/README.osx
+++ b/README.osx
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 Release Notes
 --------------
-This version of the library has been tested under OSX 10.2 using gcc 3.3.
+This version of the library has been tested under OSX 10.3 using gcc 3.3.
 
 While the makefiles will make a .dylib and a .a, it is recommended to simply staticly link with the .a file.
 
@@ -13,4 +13,13 @@ The installation process is as simple as this :
 make osx
 make osxinstall
 3) Clean all files produced during the build process
-make clean
+make osxclean
+
+Simple codec compilation
+------------------------
+Once you've built the library, you might want to test it with a basic codec. To do this, go to the codec directory and use one of the following commands to build an encoder and decoder respectively:
+
+gcc convert.c image_to_j2k.c -o image_to_j2k -lopenjpeg -I ../libopenjpeg/ -lm
+gcc convert.c j2k_to_image.c -o j2k_to_image -lopenjpeg -I ../libopenjpeg/ -lm
+
+You should add '-L..' to those lines if you did not use the 'osxinstall' target (and the 'osxclean' target neither...).
\ No newline at end of file