[Orclib-users] newbie question on installing OCILIB on Linux (CentOS)

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Hi, I'm new to OCILIB but would like to use the latest version to connect my ANSI C programs (using GCC compiler) on a (Linux) CentOS 6.2 server to talk to an Oracle 11.2 database on a CentOS 5.6 server.

I have some newbie questions... 

The documentation states in the Requirements section: "An Oracle client (regular or Instant) (note that the client is not required for compilation)".

QUESTION 1: Does this mean an Oracle client (regular or instant) is ALWAYS required, even though it may not be needed for compilation? That is, an Oracle client is ALWAYS needed for the OCI libraries at the very least, right?

QUESTION 2: Concerning OCILIB, is/are there any advantage(s) or disadvantage(s) in selecting the Regular versus Instant client? Since they both contain the OCI libraries, either should work equally well. I see in the documentation there are differences in the GNU install options (e.g. --with-oracle-headers-path and --with-oracle-lib-path are meant to be used with Instant client only, etc.), but other than that, are there any considerations I should be aware of? (My only use for the Oracle client is for OCILIB.)

QUESTION 3: I couldn't find any examples for configure options. If I use the "Oracle Instant Client", am I understanding the installation documentation correctly by installing as follows?

# cd /path/to/OCILIB/install/directory
# ./configure --with-oracle-headers-path /path/to/OCI/public/headers --with-oracle-lib-path /path/to/directory/containing/the/file/libclntsh.so
# ./make
# su root
# ./make install

I need "ANSI" charset and "linkage" options, which should occur by default.

QUESTION 4: Can someone help me understand what this means: "To compile native 64 bits versions of OCILIB, you need pass your compiler specifics flags to the configure script." 

My CentOS 6.2 (linux) server is 64 bits. Does that mean I want to compile 64 bit versions of OCILIB? (is that common practice?) If so, I didn't see any compiler specific flags documented for the configure script -- is this outside of OCILIB documentation (where can I find them, or can someone let me know what to use)?

Thanks in advance for any help. GKK