[tex-k] texLive 2011 updmap problem

[Dick Nickalls]

Norbert,

>first of all, please stay on list. Private replies does not help anyone.

OK - do you want me to  send a copy of this to tex-live at tug.org then so we can follow it there? I don't quite understand the tex-k at ... list (its not listed on the TL mail list at tug as far as I can see.

>On Do, 01 Sep 2011, Dick Nickalls wrote:
>> OK- this is news to me indeed. - I use Perl a lot and this TL application is the /only/ one where my version fails just now !
>Really? Then you don't use Getopt often. I happen to use this construct
>quite often.

well - I /do/ use Getopt::Long, and it /does/ work nicely with Perl v 5.8.7
 >> and also ? include a Perl status check in the  useful LTxcheck utility perhaps
>
>Never heard of
>	LTxcheck
>???

well the utility ltxcheck.tex is on TL2011 at
../texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/ltxcheck.tex
and it runs a useful general check on installed tools etc.


BTW - as regards the requirement  for Perl 5.8.8. or later,
is  this particular specification
defined somewhere in the documentation anywhere?
- ie does this apply to all the other very many perl scripts which have appeared in /bin/i386-linux over the last few years??


anyway - I appreciate the efforts of tom and others to look into whether the bash scripts can be supported - I hope this can be done without too much difficulty.

regards,
Dick
---------
Dr RWD Nickalls
Consultant in Anaesthesia & Intensive Care (retired),
c/o Department of Anaesthesia
Nottingham University Hospitals
City Hospital Campus
Hucknall Road
Nottingham NG5 1PB
UK

tel:  +44(0)115-9856663
email:  dick at nickalls.org
web:     http://www.nickalls.org/dick/
mobile: +44(0)7908-565-289

On Sat, 3 Sep 2011 01:22:17 +0900
 Norbert Preining <preining at logic.at> wrote:
>Hi Dick
>
>first of all, please stay on list. Private replies does not help anyone.
>
>On Do, 01 Sep 2011, Dick Nickalls wrote:
>> OK- this is news to me indeed. - I use Perl a lot and this TL application is the /only/ one where my version fails just now !
>
>Really? Then you don't use Getopt often. I happen to use this construct
>quite often.
>
>> in fact my Perl version is v5.8.7 (2005)
>
>You need 5.8.8 (AFAIR)
>
>> I would  be glad if  TL could consider maintaining a BASH version  in parallel ---for a few years at least if possible - 
>
>Sorry, but no. We will not continue maintaining a script just because
>a few people prefer to run very old perl. You can even update *only*
>Getopt::Long and it will work. I am not very much inclined to keep
>backward compatibility for ages, not even latex  keeps it, even less
>packages of latex.
>
>> --certainly some rather detailed info on this aspect of TL's use of Perl ought to be made easily available on the TL  website etc, and in all the info with 2011 TL as well.
>
>We will add a check in the updmap script and die early with a warning
>that perl is too old and you need 5.8.8.
>
>> perhaps some updated info could be posted on the TL website ?
>
>As Reinhard wrote, there is no updated info.
>
>> and also ? include a Perl status check in the  useful LTxcheck utility perhaps
>
>Never heard of
>	LTxcheck
>???
>
>> I forgot to ask you which is the minimum version of Perl required for TL 
>>  Perl tools   used   gnu-Linux systems???
>
>See above.
>
>Best wishes
>
>Norbert
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Norbert Preining            preining@{jaist.ac.jp, logic.at, debian.org}
>JAIST, Japan                                 TeX Live & Debian Developer
>DSA: 0x09C5B094   fp: 14DF 2E6C 0307 BE6D AD76  A9C0 D2BF 4AA3 09C5 B094
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that
>anything so mindboggingly useful could have evolved purely
>by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as the
>final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God.
>The argument goes something like this: `I refuse to prove
>that I exist,' says God, `for proof denies faith, and
>without faith I am nothing.'
>The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't
>it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you
>exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't.
>QED.'
>                 --- Douglas Adams, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy