Howto create software package in Unix/Linux?

Question

How can we create a software package, so that after extracting our software tar ball user can do the typical steps?

$ gunzip < mycode.tar.gz | tar xvf -
$ ./configure
$ make
$ make install

Answer 1

An alternative to the hard to understand GNU/Autools is CMake.

http://www.cmake.org/cmake/help/examples.html

e.g. KDE is using it.

Answer 2

Look into the GNU autoconf/automake toolchain. Here's a free tutorial/book.