[tex-live] scheme modern

[Zdenek Wagner]

2011/1/9 jfbu <jfbu at free.fr>:
> Hi everybody,
>
> for users of Mac OS X, Dick Koch proposes a subset of full TeX Live 2010,
> "Basic TeX", it amounts to less than 100 MB, see his web page
> http://pages.uoregon.edu/koch/
> and especially the pdf file BasicTeX.pdf
>
> http://pages.uoregon.edu/koch/BasicTeX.pdf
>
The distribution is small because it lacks documentation. It may cause
problems to users if they do not see manuals. Anyway, the document
describes how to make costom versions and is worth reading.

A few years ago I worked in OS/2 for which port of teTeX was
available. At that time even in TL no update mechanism existed. When
processing files created by others, I often needed packages not
present in teTeX, so I had to go to CTAN and install them. Very soon I
realized that the useful part of teTeX in OS/2 are just compiled
binaries and tailored texmf.cnf. I removed the texmf trees, took them
from the full version of TL installed on Linux and copied to OS/2.

> which explains the rationale behind it.
>
> however as I became aware of it after installing scheme-full I did not try
> out and have no further comment, just wanted to bring it to your attention
> as it does not seem to have been noticed
>
> Jean-Francois
>
> Le 9 janv. 11, à 16:03, Reinhard Kotucha a écrit :
>
>> On 9 January 2011 Arno Trautmann wrote:
>>
>>> Ok, so from your answes I conclude: There is not much
>>> interest/necessarity/possibility to provide a smallish "modern"
>>> scheme.
>>
>> I fear that nobody will use it because nobody cares about disk space
>> nowadays.  Even if this is a problem in particular cases, you won't
>> get it so small that the effort is worthwhile.  If you want such a
>> scheme with TeX Live, you can't drop all the language support files or
>> language-specific documentation.  If you launch the installer, go to
>> the collections menu, and deselect all collections, you still need
>> 703 MB.  This doesn't contain any macro package, font, or package
>> documentation files so far.  I really doubt that you get something
>> useful which is much smaller than abt. 1.6 ... 2 GB.
>>
>> If you have package updates via the internet in mind, it doesn't make
>> sense to drop stuff which is stable for decades, such as most fonts.
>>
>> As I said recently, IMO schemes are quite useless.  Maybe even rather
>> confusing than helpful.
>>
>> I fear that you invest a lot of time into something which looks like a
>> good idea at a first glance and finally you are disappointed when you
>> recognize that almost nobody is using it.
>>
>> Regards,
>>  Reinhard
>>
>> --
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Reinhard Kotucha                                      Phone:
>> +49-511-3373112
>> Marschnerstr. 25
>> D-30167 Hannover
>>  mailto:reinhard.kotucha at web.de
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Microsoft isn't the answer. Microsoft is the question, and the answer is
>> NO.
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>



-- 
Zdeněk Wagner
http://hroch486.icpf.cas.cz/wagner/
http://icebearsoft.euweb.cz