[texdoc] texdoc and support_zipped

[Norbert Preining]

Hi Manuel, hi all,

On So, 03 Jan 2010, Manuel Pégourié-Gonnard wrote:
> Just changing to
> 
> support_zipped = true
> 
> in constants.tlu should work.

Indeed it does, but you need to change the viewers. The automatically
selected ones (gnome-open in my case) return immediately, thus the
temp file will be removed and all gone.

In the Debian package I uploaded today I use 0.61 of texdoc, set in
constants.tlu the support_zipped = true, and use 
	(see %s) &
as viewer for all types.

That works nicely.

> As a user of this pseudo-option, wdyt?

> Then, as Norbert points out, upstream TL doesn't ship compressed doc, so it is
> sort of useless code here. OTOH, I shouldn't hurt to enable it here.
> 
> The real problem is that it doesn't work on windows, and I don't really want to
> spend time making it work here, since AFAIK it is not used in this context. So I
> feel a little bit incomfortable about activating something that cannot work
> cross-platform (since texdoc obviously tries to be cross-platform).

I would suggest to:
- turn it into a normal option
- document it in texdoc.cnf cleanly
- mention that the automatically selected viewers will most probably
  not work (gnome-open immediately returns, and I assume the same for
  kde-open etc)
- *but* leave it disabled under normal circumstances

That does not change much (but the making the option a real one, which 
in fact is already prepared, becasue there are parts where you check 
for C.support_zipped!!), does not add incompatibilities to upstream
TeX Live, and allows distributions (where they can select a decent viewer)
to activate it by simply changing texdoc.cnf.

> Norbert, please don't hesitate to ask me if you think something should be
> changed in texdoc (or its documentation).

Well, there is no documentation of it, at least none that I grasped
that it has to be directly in constants.tlu ;-) See my suggestion
from above.

> Unrelated, but I'm glad to hear that TL09 should soon hit testing (hence be in
> the next stable). Fingers crossed.

Yup, if not another RC bug had to be fixed we probably would already be
there. BTW: The telxive packages currently in unstable already have
the above changes ;-)

------------------
One more thing: I was a bit puzzled that texdoc does not look into
	TEXMFSYSCONFIG or TEXMFCONFIG /texdoc/texdoc.cnf
In upstream texlive that would be
	.../2009/texmf-config	(TEXMFSYSCONFIG)
	~/.texlive2009/texmf-config	(TEXMFCONFIG)
on Debian it would be
	/etc/texmf		(TEXMFSYSCONFIG)
	~/.texlive/texmf-config	(TEXMFCONFIG)

Best wishes

Norbert
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Norbert Preining            preining@{jaist.ac.jp, logic.at, debian.org}
JAIST, Japan            TU Wien, Austria           Debian TeX Task Force
DSA: 0x09C5B094   fp: 14DF 2E6C 0307 BE6D AD76  A9C0 D2BF 4AA3 09C5 B094
------------------------------------------------------------------------
BUDE
A polite joke reserved for use in the presence of vicars.
			--- Douglas Adams, The Meaning of Liff