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

[George N. White III]

2008/10/12 Zdenek Wagner <zdenek.wagner at gmail.com>:

> 2008/10/12 Victor Ivrii <vivrii at gmail.com>:
>> On Sun, Oct 12, 2008 at 2:16 PM, Norbert Preining <preining at logic.at> wrote:
>>> On So, 12 Okt 2008, Edd Barrett wrote:
>>>> I think what I was asking is, do you think it is a useful idea?
>>>
>>> Of course, but good luck implementing it ;-) Or you can ask CS for the
>>> code?
>>
>> Great idea to create a bloody mess: one adds a new package, then this
>> package is snatched but it requires another package which is not on
>> the computer or the newer version of the package which is already
>> there and in turn ... and all this is while one is traveling with no
>> or lousy internet connection and all this just to save a fistful of
>> gigs not sufficient even for  one HD movie
>>
> AFAIK auto download can be disabled in MiKTeX. It is no problem in
> principle to add some configuration setting for enabling/disabling it.
> Or it may say: "I am going to download a missing package. Do you want
> me to do it?" All users thus can be satisfied, those who like auto
> download as well as those who do not like it and wish to do it always
> manually.

To make autoloading work you have to determine which package supplies
the missing file.   Most people only need the autodownload a few times (e.g.,
when they first load some publisher's LaTeX style or get an MS from a
colleagure).
Many of us have struggled in the past to figure out which package provides some
missing file, but the interest in autodownload would be much less if
there was a
reliable tool to identifiy the package(s) that provide(s) a missing
file.   If users
have to determine a package name they are more likely to seek a bit of
information
about the package, and will come to have a better feel for what does what.

-- 
George N. White III <aa056 at chebucto.ns.ca>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia