[tex-live] TeXLive-CD/DVD (Installation)

[Reinhard Kotucha]

>>>>> "Hans" == Hans Hagen <pragma at wxs.nl> writes:

  >> If there is a distinction between these OS's, using different
  >> installation tools, then it should also be possible to use
  >> binaries, created from same source, compiled to native code for
  >> those platforms... ?!
  >> 
  > perl, python, ruby ... these can all be wrapped into 'pseudo
  > binaries' being the core engine plus libs used plus scripts into
  > one file which then can run as any program without the need to
  > install the whole scripting environment

This is what Tomek actually does.  tlpmgui is based on Tcl/Tk.  But
we don't have runtime environments for all platforms.

We need, at least for UNIX, an installer which works on all platforms.
Currently it is a shell script which uses some autoconf magic for
platform detection (config.guess).  The shell script we have now is
quite fine.  I'm very happy with it and for UNIX it is definitely the
best solution.

The problem is that it doesn't work on Windows.  If we can assume that
all UNIX platforms have Perl installed (more likely than Python, Ruby,
Lua, or anything else) and there is a Perl binary for Windows on the
CD/DVD, I think that not everything has to be re-invented again and
again for Windows.

The ideal solution would be to have a platform independent script
which does exactly the same by default as the shell script we have
now, but provides a --non-interactive option which suppresses the
menues so that GUIs can use it.

It makes sense to separate the installer from the user interfaces.
For instance, the GUI could ask the installer which packages are
available.  Then the user selects a set of packages, and the GUI tells
the installer which packages shall be installed.

Regards,
  Reinhard

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Reinhard Kotucha			              Phone: +49-511-4592165
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