[tex-live] So far.....expensive failure

[Siep Kroonenberg]

On Sat, Feb 16, 2013 at 11:57:59AM +0100, Reinhard Kotucha wrote:
> On 2013-02-16 at 11:14:26 +0100, Denis Bitouzé wrote:
> 
>  > Le samedi 16/02/13 à 10h50,
>  > Reinhard Kotucha <reinhard.kotucha at web.de> a écrit :
>  > 
>  > As already answered to Lars, I always recommend to run the
>  > install-tl-advanced as an administrator and change the two options:
>  > 
>  >   1. "Install for all users" from "No" to "Yes".
> 
> Ok.  The default is "No" because one can't know in advance whether a
> user has the necessary permissions for a system-wide installation.

Under >= vista, if you install as admin and accidentally install
texworks later as user, then the file associations will be created
only for the user.  Not installing for all users prevents some
inconsistencies.

>  >   2. Install TeXworks (I don't remember the exact label of this
>  >   option). I explain myself: though I am an Emacs user, I know
>  >   TeXworks is very powerful but, IMHO, it is not very helpful for
>  >   beginners as it requires them to know and remember macro and
>  >   environment names (TeXstudio, for instance is easier for
>  >   beginners).
> 
> I usually recommend TeXworks to beginners *because* they have to
> remember macro and environment names.  Former or later it's
> advantageous to have them learned.  There must be a reason that we
> both are using Emacs...
> 
> Using TeXworks means to learn LaTeX as it's described in the
> literature.  This is a big advantage, especially in the long term.
> Admittedly, there's a lot to learn at the beginning, but it's easy
> enough once one have understood the concepts.  Furthermore, there is
> a lot of stuff which is not accessible from IDEs, hence I wouldn't
> rely on them at all.

It is hard enough as it is to sell students on LaTeX at all. Some
students like it a lot, but others just do not get it or do not want
to get it.
> 
>  >   Well I could let TeXworks be installed but, often, it becomes the
>  >   default program for .tex files even if another preferred TeX IDE
>  >   is installed afterwards.

Nowadays, the TeX Live installer also uses `OpenWithProgids' file
associations, which should make texworks show up under the `open
with' context menu even if it is not the default program.

But file associations are a big mess. Microsoft created patch upon
patch upon patch to make it right, but it is only getting more
convoluted as time goes by.

-- 
Siep Kroonenberg