[tex-live] Re: 20000425 image on Windows: disappointment!

[Janusz S. Bień]

On Thu, 25 Apr 2002  Fabrice Popineau <Fabrice.Popineau@supelec.fr> wrote:

[...]

> Well, I should try to explain what I intended behind 'Run TeX off
> cdrom'.
> 
> The goal was to be able to _demonstrate_ how simple it is to produce a
> file with (La)TeX. I didn't intend it as a definitive installation of
> TeX, but only as a way to show people that TeX can be easy. I wanted
> to be as less intrusive as possible.

I comment on this below.

> 
> Now, that's  true that unless you are  a power user, you can't install
> programs under 2000/XP (and you shouldn't try  to install them outside
> c:\Program  Files  !).  So   this  is bound   to fail   on   protected
> machines. Thanks for pointing it out.

So this is an argument for promoting NT Emacs (Live or not), which can
be run from any directory.

> What I can  do is to complete something  which I left commented in the
> sources : let the user choose which editor he  want's to use. 

I strongly support this solutions.

> But this will require that it is a TeX oriented editor and that
> compilation be run from this editor. 

NT Emacs seems again the right answer. What about joining effort with
TEI-Emacs team, which happens to include Sebastian Rahtz? The TexLive
version of NT Emacs may be just TEI-Emacs, perhaps without SGML/XML
stuff.

> I'm quite reluctant to make definitive changes to the user's PATH
> outside of TeXSetup.exe but I will think about it (in fact I would
> prefer a true minimal setup with TEXMFEXTRA pointing to the cdrom).

I'm afraid your remark is too technical for me.


On Thu, 25 Apr 2002  "Staszek Wawrykiewicz" <StaW@gust.org.pl> wrote:


[...]

> The setup is intended especially for beginers and sets the environment
> not permanently.

I don't think running TeX Live from CD is just for beginners. I was
using TL6 this way (under Linux) systematically because I was short of
the disk space. BTW, when I moved to a 40GB disk, I just run TeXLive from
the CD image :-).

Nevertheless, I agree that running from CD is primarily for
demonstration purpose. However, I would like to be able to demonstrate
on any computer a full-fledged TeX environment, which for me means NT
Emacs with AUC TeX. Depriving me of the possiblity to choose the
edytor to install (in particular, none if one is already available) is
wrong. Suggesting to a novice that WinShell is a prerequisite is even
worse.

There are several ways out. Splitting the installation into "a
demonstration for a novice" and "setup for regular use" is only one of
the possibilities.

> As you can read in TL doc, the alternative for running TeX off CD-ROM
> is mkloctex.bat, so you can use your prefered editor and set env
> for more sessions...

I think a typical user reads the documentation after (succesful or
unsuccesful) installation, and this is OK. If `mkloctex.tex' is a
serious alternative, it should be available from the installation
screen.

[...]

> So regular user cannot also install NTEmacs, I hope.

As I said above, NT Emacs can be run from any location, including
CD-ROM. Another question is adding an icon to the desktop etc. As I am
just a casual user of Windows, I can't you more on this topic.

Best regards

Janusz

P.S. I've burned today's image (20000426), but I lended the CD to a
student without looking at its content. Does it contain a new
configuration for NT Emacs?

-- 
                     ,   
dr hab. Janusz S. Bien, prof. UW
Prof. Janusz S. Bien, Warsaw Uniwersity
http://www.orient.uw.edu.pl/~jsbien/
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