[texhax] Where to put amslatex package files on a PC?

[Uwe Lück]

[Clarifications of my own ...]

Hi Barbara,

At 23:29 17.11.09, Uwe Lück wrote:
>At 22:37 12.11.09, inquiries at mortonresearch.org [OP] wrote:
>>I m on a Windows PC using WinShell and MiKTeX and downloaded the package 
>>called: amslatex, zipped as gsm_amslatex.zip.
>>[...]
>>The README-M-L.TXT file also suggests that I get technical and 
>>administrative information from the AMS Author FAQ:
>>
>>      http://www.ams.org/authors/author-faq.html
>>
>>but here, the section entitled: "Technical Topics, Running (La)TeX - 
>>where to install packages, etc."
>>
>>says to:
>>
>>"First, check that you have placed the package files in the local TEXMF 
>>tree where TeX is supposed to look for them. For an AMS-LaTeX author 
>>package, the recommended location is TEXMF/tex/latex/ams-author-info."
>>
>>but there is no such folder named "TEXMF" on my entire computer.
>
>Actually, this refers to
>
>     http://www.ams.org/authors/author-faq.html#running
>[...]
>    2. The OP did not understand that "TEXMF" here
>     is nothing but a placeholder for the name of a
>     TeX files directory, not (necessarily)
>     an actual directory name.

Maybe this misunderstanding is likely to occur with people not knowing 
about UNIX environment variables (e.g., Windows users) and could by avoided 
by adding that TEXMF may be "texmf" or something else.

Another source of misunderstanderstanding might come from the concept of 
"the" TEXMF tree. It has been suggested (I think at least two times on this 
list) to create separate "TEXMF" trees on the same machine (for using 
different TeX installations). I think MiKTeX had something like "miktex2.7" 
as default name for this tree. This way you can quickly "fall back" to an 
earlier installation when you experience problems with your new one.

>Concerning installations that are not maintained by a package manager, one 
>may refer to the UK TeX FAQ ...

I thought of the main page

     http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html

search for "installing". More than one page, but not all from the list may 
be relevant.

At 23:58 17.11.09, Barbara Beeton wrote:
>     The above site mentions a few most frequently used TeX systems, MiKTeX
>     among them. I estimate 10 through 90 percent AMS-LaTeX users work on
>     Windows with MiKTeX, at least about as many users work on Windows (even
>     university members having access to a university UNIX installation may
>     prefer working at home at a PC under Windows), I estimate that MiKTeX is
>     most common for driving TeX under Windows. Or MiKTeX and texlive together
>     make up more than 50 percent of all AMS-LaTeX users ...
>
>the users i deal with most frequently are ams
>authors, and, perhaps surprisingly, more of
>them are using mac/texshop than your 90% would
>imply.  and a sizeable fraction are using
>scientific workplace (and that's another story
>entirely!).

Interesting, thanks.

Cheers,

     Uwe.