[tex-live] Why has initex disappeared?

[Olaf Weber]

Karl Berry writes:

>>     So by removing "initex", we have removed a common source of problems.

> It is a common source of problems these days, yet it has also been
> documented and used since day 1.  For this reason, I recall asking Olaf
> to reinstate initex and inimf (don't care about any of the others) --
> but it seems TL'05 won't have it, so you'll be happy about that :).

Actually, I understood that request as asking for etex, pdftex, etc to
recognize "initex" as a special name, so that _if_ they are called
through an initex symlink, "ini" mode is enabled.  But I did not
reinstate the symlinks themselves.

> Just removing it also has the disadvantage that people who simply run
> `initex' on a system with more than one tex installed (like everyone who
> uses TL) will get the wrong one.

> Perhaps it should be a shell script next time around:
> #!/bin/sh
> echo "initex and inimf are too problematic to use directly any more."
> echo "Please run fmtutil on teTeX and TeX Live to make formats."
> echo "See http://whatever/whatever for more info."

> Wdyt?

Might not be a bad idea.

-- 
Olaf Weber

               (This space left blank for technical reasons.)