[tex-live] [tlpmgui] tlpmgui starts in the wrong mode under Win32

Frank Küster frank at kuesterei.ch
Fri Feb 2 15:14:16 CET 2007


"Zdenek Wagner" <zdenek.wagner at gmail.com> wrote:

> 2007/2/2, Philip Taylor (Webmaster) <P.Taylor at rhul.ac.uk>:
>>
>>
>> Zdenek Wagner wrote:
>>
>>  > You should not consider texmf trees as data but as a part of the
>>  > program.
>>
>> But they /are/ data, and should be treated as such.  Indeed,
>> I would go further : the basic TEXMF structure should be
>> read-only data; the TEXMFVAR structure should be read/write.
>> And TEXMFLOCAL (I have never used TEXMFHOME) should be write-
>> locked but easily unlockable/relockable if one needs to add
>> packages.  It is not at /all/ clear to me why one might want
>
> Access rights are set almost that way in Linux.

I don't understand what you want to say here - but for sure on Linux
the distinction between data and programs as described by Phil has a
long tradition, is mandated by the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard and is
usually followed quite strictly.  Not to forget that TeX Live has
inherited from teTeX a build configuration that allows it to be easily
adapted to this separation: binaries end up in /usr/bin, data in
/usr/share/texmf*, variable stuff in /var/lib/texmf.

>> to "pretend" that the TEXMF structure is in any way at all
>> a part of the program, and it is equally unclear why the
>> installer believes that I want the executable installed somewhere
>> unde TEXMF.  All other programs are installed under
>>
> By doing that it is sufficient just set PATH. If you have several
> versions of TL installed and you wish to process your old document by
> TL2004 (e.g. because some packages heve been updated in an
> incompatible way and your old document does not work with the latest
> TL) you just modify PATH. If *.exe is not under TEXMF, you will also
> have to set TEXMFCNF, or you must always get to sources and compile
> them so that your paths are hard-coded as your personal default. It
> would be more error prone for normal users.

This is a valid argument.  However I'm not sure whether normal users
actually install different versions in parallel, or whether it's not
equally "normal" to want separate partitions for programs and data.

> I always prefer if related files are together. If I wish to remove TL,
> I just remove one tree, not files from several trees. 

It seems the installer needs an uninstall option...

Regards, Frank
-- 
Dr. Frank Küster
Single Molecule Spectroscopy, Protein Folding @ Inst. f. Biochemie, Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer (teTeX/TeXLive)


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