[tex-live] How about auto-download of classes/styles etc. ?

[Robin Fairbairns]

Ulrike Fischer <news2 at nililand.de> wrote:

> Am Mon, 13 Oct 2008 06:24:34 -0400 schrieb Victor Ivrii:
> > Well, CFR (and me) just cannot even think that Windows people can do
> > anything right and we MUST think that there is a catch somewhere.
> > (Sure it is we just have not figured out where:-)
> 
> Oh, there are catches. Sometimes the installer gets confused due to name
> clashes and if a new package needs another package which needs another
> package etc ... the on-the-fly installation can take quite a time. And
> you can use it only if you have the rights to install things in the main
> folder. 
> 
> But a tool isn't useless only because it doesn't work perfectly in every
> case or if doesn't solve a vital problem but makes life only a bit
> easier sometimes. And a small improvement is not worthless only because
> a larger one is thinkable. 

ulrike expresses my thoughts about the matter precisely.

we must realise that, in the absence of a volunteer to hack at web2c,
all this argument is theoretical.  but that was always so: i speculated
what would be necessary to implement this, getting on for 10 years ago
(following a remark of sebastian's), and had realised then the extent of
the work required.  (i didn't then consider the need for a database of
file pointers ... i imagined that would be an easy business.)

we are now in a better position than ever to provide the facility,
lacking (as we do, now) only the programmer(s) to do the work.

r