Re: What I miss in teTeX

Quoting Robin Fairbairns <[email protected]>:

> VnPenguin wrote:
> > On 11/14/05, Gunnar G <[email protected]> wrote:
> > > I use teTeX in my Linux machine and the only thing I miss is a command
> line
> > > interface program that I can run as root and where I can browse
> installed
> > > and not installed packages, just like in the online catalogue. In this
> > > program I wish to be able to select what extra packages to install or
> > > remove. A command to update the installation would also be great.
> > 
> > Are you dreaming ? :-)  Some functions like this could be found with
> > mikTeX (Win32 TeX distribution, via a GUI)  IIRC, but not for teTeX.
> > 
> > IMHO, Installation/uninstallation TeX packages is not a _daily_ job.
> 
> if it's a rare requirement, people won't remember from one time to the
> next how to do it, so the problem remains in perpetuity.

Speaking for myself, there are getting to be too many installers.  Unless
the installer uses the platform's std. installer (apt on Debian, rpm on
RHEL, tardist on SGI, msi on Win32) I'm probably going to have to 
RTFM anyway.  Sensible people who stay on one platform will also appreciate
something that works with the default tools.  The hard part of installers
is managing dependencies, which is hard to do without the help of the native
tool.  If you look closely, teTeX depends on many 3rd party packages, including
ghostscript, imagemagick, xpdf, ... 

Most linux distros have tetex packages, so the issues are:

1) problems with the vendor packages being broken or changed beyond
recognition, and  
2) installing add-ons at the granularity used in TeX-Live

I expect issue 1) is best addressed thru the vendor bug-reporting, but
in principle it should be possible to produce replacements if the vendor
is slow to respond.  For 2), do you ignore whatever distro-specific package
data are available and provide an independent tool for adding things to 
"any" tetex that has been installed (e.g., based kpathsea locations)?

> > So a such soft has no so many useful. But maybe there is someone
> > already do some thing about this idea for teTeX ?
> 
> have you _tried_ explaining package installation to anyone else?
>
> writing such instructions (with exceptions left, right, and centre)
> has led me to believe that an installer is needed.  i've even spent a
> little time thinking about how it might work.

As well, I presume, about things that authors could do to make writing an
installer easier.  Is it better to have a simpler installer that makes more
demands on authors or a more robust installer that, with a little assistance,
handles everything.  Should the installer always install to the main tree or
can a user install "ad-ons" into a personal tree (e.g., ~/texmf)?  
 
> but now, the miktex package manager is "available for unix"
> (www.miktex.org/unx) and when i've a bit of continuous spare time i'm
> going to be investigating it thoroughly: this is something i believe
> we need.  and here we have it, dished up by a public-spirited person
> who just happened to have the basic thing there to start with.

Does the miktex package manager make any provisions for "shared" 
installations or is it just for "personal" use?

-- 
George N. White III
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia