[tex-live] minor problems with install-tl

[Robin Fairbairns]

Werner LEMBERG <wl at gnu.org> wrote:

> > Norbert, you don't have to go so far away.  If you like adventures,
> > come to Germany and enjoy the German railway system.  Unfortunately
> > it's extremely expensive.
> 
> You are extremely exaggerating.  I use the German trails almost daily
> for longer trips, and it works very well most of the time.  The
> greatest problems are `Langsamfahrstrecken' (paths which have to be
> passed in a slow tempo) which get more and more during the year,
> causing delays over delays.  Reason is that the German railway
> management didn't take care of the railway network for many, many
> years, and now fixes are overdue, and before this happens the
> governmental railway department limits the tempo for security reasons.
> As soon as the new time table appears (in December and June), most of
> those delays disappear because the new schedule handles those
> Langsamfahrstrecken appropriately.

whereas, during the period when we had a "commercial" company running
the uk's rail tracks, we had one terrible crash which came because the
track hadn't been inspected properly (if at all).  my wife and i set off
up north, a few days later, and the train ran like a slug on
tranquillisers, stopped short of our destination[*].  that was the
beginning of the end for commerce in that area, and we now have a
marginally less incompetent national enterprise doing the job.

after tug '96 at dubna, sebastian and i went back to moscow by train,
which was interesting.  the track was obviously in a terrible state, and
the train didn't go fast at any time.  but there was more leg-room in
the carriage than i've experienced in any other transport: stretched
full out in opposite seats, our feet didn't touch, and while neither of
us is 2m tall, we're not midgets either.

i go for trains, nowadays, because no airline i could afford would offer
seats that i would likely survive (i've had two deep thromboses, and a
pulmonary embolism, which apparently predisposes me to such a death.  i
might manage eurotex 09, since i can go there by train/boat/train
(tickets sold by the shipping company).  (i could have done tug this
year, that way, but i was too ill at the time.)

robin

[*] there's a 1930s song "oh mr porter, what shall i do?  i wanted to go
to birmingham but you've taken me on to crewe".  we sang "oh mr porter,
what shall we do?  we wanted to go to liverpool, but you've put us off
at crewe".  i don't think anyone noticed.  (mind you, crewe isn't a bad
place to be: they have an apt [exptl tilting train from the 60s] and
several deltics sitting in sidings for no particular reason i can
determine.)