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To: JGMBenoit AT Wanadoo DOT fr
Cc: cygwin-apps AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: RFP: texmf
References: <m3zo50xawc DOT fsf AT appel DOT lilypond DOT org>
	<20011203212637 DOT GA29013 AT redhat DOT com>
	<m3vgfox8k8 DOT fsf AT appel DOT lilypond DOT org> <3C0D54FC DOT A6FDDA21 AT t-online DOT de>
Organization: Jan at Appel
From: Jan Nieuwenhuizen <janneke AT gnu DOT org>
Date: 05 Dec 2001 01:53:51 +0100
In-Reply-To: <3C0D54FC.A6FDDA21@t-online.de> (520066587150-0001@t-online.de's message of "Tue, 04 Dec 2001 23:58:04 +0100")
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520066587150-0001 AT t-online DOT de (Jerome BENOIT) writes:

> I will try to rebuild the tetex-beta package this week-end.
> To avoid any confusion, I plan to rename it `tetex-bin' as suggested 
> in a previous email.

Very nice.

> So far I can run all the executables on my computer:
> please, what you mean by "It needs a rebuild for certain executables" ?

Sorry for the vagueness, I only heard some complaints when I sent the
message.  I've investigated a bit, and pdftex.exe doesn't run when
libjpeg isn't installed (this was missing from my texmf requires:
line).  Also, texconfig doesn't run when libncurses5 is not installed,
while the current default is libcurses6?

But I really don't know, there were complaints on the list.  Looking
at it now, it seems to me that both problems would be fixed by adding
these to tetex-beta/bin's setup.hint:

    requires: ash bash cygwin libncurses5 jpeg libpng tiff ncurses sed
    termcap texmf-base zlib

a good idea in any case, but I don't know if there are other problems,
or what the idea is with the ncurses5/6 libs.

Maybe we should rename texmf-base to tetex-base?  Also, if you (or
anyone else) would like to take over the texmf packages I did, please
do so.  But suggestions are welcome too.

> `texmf' is of course platform independent execpt for the web2c directory
> which is platform dependent !

Yes, but we can define the default layout, and the .fmt get generated
during postinstall.  It would be good if tetex-bin would do that too,
I think?

Btw, texmf-base now includes your .frozen config files without the
.frozen suffix.  Maybe we can do better than that?

> > In fact, tetex-beta has been fairly useless (IMHO) because it lacks a
> > texmf tree, that the user was supposed to provide.
> 
> So far I can understand, this should not be a big deal for cygwin users. 

Maybe not.  But it would be nice if all packages would `just work'
after running setup.exe, which shouldn't be so hard to achieve with
tetex?

Letting the user handle part of the installation procedure is
annoying, requires some knowledge, reading, and a certain level of
computer-savvyness, plus it makes installing LilyPond unnecessarily
complex.  In short: this isn't an option.  The biggest problem for
windows users involve getting (mik)tex up and running.  If you let any
room for users to make mistakes, some will, and will complain.

> > I've asked around if a texmf package would be welcomed (and
> > subsequently spent quite some time on it).
> > 
> Sorry I don't understand the point:
> a complete `texmf' (platform independent) package is available on CTAN.

Sure, but packaging it for cygwin does require some work.  Also, I
don't have a windows development box (an oxymoron?), last-week's
latest cygwin didn't cross-compile on my own box (fixed with 1.3.6),
and handling and transferring these big packages is a bit of a pain.

> By "It needs a rebuild for certain executables",
> do you mean that cygwin exectables run only on cygwin ?

Don't know, let's ask the people that complained about texmf?

Greetings,
Jan.

-- 
Jan Nieuwenhuizen <janneke AT gnu DOT org> | GNU LilyPond - The music typesetter
http://www.xs4all.nl/~jantien       | http://www.lilypond.org