[tex-live] Re: Re: Re: [tug-board] Any news of DVDs ?

[David Kastrup]

Giuseppe Bilotta <bilotta78 at hotpop.com> writes:

> On Wed, 1 Feb 2006 00:58:23 +0100, Reinhard Kotucha wrote:
>> 
>> 714938368  TeXLive-2005-install.iso
>> 684287622  TeXLive-2005-install.iso.bz2 (4.2872%)
>> 682955930  TeXLive-2005-install.iso.zip	(4.4735%)
>> 682955793  TeXLive-2005-install.iso.gz  (4.4735%)
>> 677460837  TeXLive-2005-install.iso.7z  (5.2421%)
>> 
>> I suppose that in Hans' example the content of the ISO-images had not
>> been compressed.  Hence, compression gain depends much more on the
>> program than it does when the content of the image is already
>> compressed.
>
> Yes, re-compression of an already compressed source isn't going to
> help much. The ideal would be if it was possible to compress the
> data *in* the ISO, rather than the ISO itself, with 7z.

The whole kpathsea should be replaced by a compressed database of
files accessed by flat file names with a separate index for each of
the various search categories.

TEXINPUT=.:!?ist!$TEXMF/database.dat

would then use the "ist" index into the given database file name for
lookink up index style files.

Something like that.

No ls-R.  That would make TeXlive fast, compact, multi-user capable
also when writing, and would render the compression discussion moot.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum