The netinstall script is one way of downloading, compiling and installing EDE and edelib as well as their prerequisites (JAM and FLTK); some readers will find it very similar to the Gentoo ebuild system or Jhbuild. It was created to automate the downloading and compiling procedure with a single command, making it a suitable procedure especially for novice users.
Details are on http://equinox-project.org/wiki/netinstall.