Re: [tex-live] teTeX: no next release

Volker Kuhlmann wrote:
>
> Thanks to Thomas (and others), getting a fully functional TeXMF system
> took as much as insert SUSE DVD, click button. In comparison, what's TeX
> Live? A CD which contains a TeXMF system which runs off that CD? Very
> useful for evaluating the software. I did that 15 years ago. Is
> installing TL to hard disk more of the make-install insanity? Thanks but
> no thanks. Other platforms? None here, so not exactly a draw-card. There
> wasn't anything going for TL in the past (well for me).
>   
The primary worth if TeXLive, to my mind, is not its
current instantiation as a CD or DVD, but in the fact
that it has a coherent and sustainable catalogue of
packages and collections. From these you can build
a set of Debian packages (done), or a set of of
RPMs (someone should try), or whatever, by writing
some scripts to read the XML control files.

> If distributors can package up TL then it's fine, but currently tetex is
> 280MB and I expect distributors might be re-evaluating inclusion of it
> if it jumps up by a lot. Would it be advisable/possible to split TL
> somehow sensible? 
thats exactly what I did about 10 years ago when
I started TL, into a more modular set of collections
than teTeX...
> Can TL be turned into an rpm on-the-fly for disk
> installation? 
>   
in theory, though it could be disk intensive


-- 
Sebastian Rahtz      

Information Manager, Oxford University Computing Services
13 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6NN. Phone +44 1865 283431

OSS Watch: JISC Open Source Advisory Service
http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk