[tex-live] latex-2.09 in TeXLive

[Staszek Wawrykiewicz]

On Wed, 26 Oct 2011, Zdenek Wagner wrote:

> 2011/10/26 Philip TAYLOR (Webmaster, Ret'd) <P.Taylor at rhul.ac.uk>:
>> Bob Tennent wrote:
>>
>>> I need to re-create this format for use on legacy sources (1000s of
>>> lines).
>>> How do I do it in a modern TeXLive installation?
>>
>> I think you would have to de-populate the TeXMF/TeX tree(s) and
>> repopulate them from very early TeX Live releases on CD/DVD,
>> then endeavour to rebuild the LaTeX 2.09 format.  I probably
>> have all TeX Live CDs going back to shortly before Noah
>> started caulking his arc, so ask if you need back issues.
>>
> In principle, it is easy, but may require some work. Back years ago
> LaTeX 2.09 and 2e lived together. There were two subdirectories in
> TEXINPUT, one for 2.09, another for 2e. You will have to create 2.09
> tree, put the files specific to 2.09 there and modify texmf.cnf.
> Afterwards you write your fmtutil-local.cfg with the commands for
> creation of the 2.09 format and generate the format by fmtutil(-sys).
> Remember that new versions of packages may not work with 2.09, be sure
> that you have the old versions and put them to the 2.09 tree. If you
> are on a Unix system, it may be easier not to try to build 2.09 in the
> lates TeX Live but install a complete old TeX Live where LaTeX 2.09
> still existed. You can switch between TL versions just by changing
> PATH. I probably have most CD/DVD's, so I could put their ISO images
> to my webserver too.

Hmmm, it's more easy then installing an old TL release. In very short:
1. get CTAN:/obsolete/macros/latex209/distribs/latex209.tar.gz and unpack it
2. copy to your texmf-local/tex/lplain/ only general/ and sty/ directories
3. run mktexlsr
4. edit your texlive/2011/texmf.cnf and add the line:
    TEXINPUTS.lplain = .;$TEXMF/tex{lplain,generic,}//
5. change the current directory to texmf-local/web2/
6. run here: tex -ini lplain.tex \dump
7. run again: mktexlsr
8. in texlive/bin/<arch>/ you can make a soft link tex->lplain (on
    windows just 'copy tex.exe lplain.exe')
9. test: 'lplain short' or 'lplain local'

I tried to avoid much more complicated explanation (e.g. making .ini files
or special fmtutil.cnf), so it could work even the main distribution is 
updated, formats are regerated via tlmgr, etc.

Ps. in any case, put your old extra style files for latex209 in
texmf-local/tex/lplain and run mktexlsr.

-- 
Staszek Wawrykiewicz
staw at gust.org.pl