[tex-live] Feedback on TeX Live 2008 network installer under Win/XP :

George N. White III gnwiii at gmail.com
Wed Aug 6 20:35:59 CEST 2008


Windows lacks a consistent definition of a user's "home" directory.
On linux/unix/macosx
there is a concept of a "home" directory that is the current working
directory for programs
started by the user.  In general, a user can only write files under
the home directory (or
in designated temporary directories, which in many cases are placed
under that "home"
directory (e.g.,, "/Users/<username>/texmf" becomes "~/texmf" or
"$HOME/texmf".  When
you have such a special directory it is useful to have a shorthand notation,
which the the role of the "~" (tilde).   At work we have Windows XP
and each user gets a
network mount of a personal "U:" drive.  Some programs store things
under "U:\", others under
"C:\Documents and Settings\<user>", so there are at least two
legitimate notions of what "~"
could mean.

On Wed, Aug 6, 2008 at 12:46 PM, Philip TAYLOR (Ret'd)
<P.Taylor at rhul.ac.uk> wrote:
>
>
> Siep Kroonenberg wrote:
>
> (2, 3) noted
>
>>> 4) "Use ~ for HOME/USERPROFILE" is not meaningful (to me).
>>
>> A better phrasing would be welcome.
>
> I really mean it's not meaningful to me, not I'm
> being deliberately opaque.  Tell me what it means
> in plain English, and I'll try to come up with
> a reasonable way of expressing it.
>
>>> 5) TEXMFHOME (...) ~/texmf : the concept of tilde is
>>>      not a Windows concept.  I would like to specify
>>>      "My documents/TeX/ here, but there is no browse
>>>      button and "My documents" is not a normal path.
>>
>> A browse button for the parent of TEXDIR would have been nice, but
>> would require too much redesigning of the GUI: asking users whether
>> or not they want the 2008 level etc. Again, too late for this
>> release.
>
> OK, browse not possible in timescale, but how about
> offering a default that has a meaning in the
> Windows world (which ~/texmf does not).



-- 
George N. White III <aa056 at chebucto.ns.ca>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia


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