[tex-live] How about auto-download of classes/styles etc. ?

[cfrees at imapmail.org]

On Sun 12th Oct, 2008 at 20:38, Zdenek Wagner seems to have written:

> 2008/10/12 Victor Ivrii <vivrii at gmail.com>:
>> On Sun, Oct 12, 2008 at 2:16 PM, Norbert Preining <preining at logic.at> wrote:
>>> On So, 12 Okt 2008, Edd Barrett wrote:
>>>> I think what I was asking is, do you think it is a useful idea?
>>>
>>> Of course, but good luck implementing it ;-) Or you can ask CS for the
>>> code?
>>
>> Great idea to create a bloody mess: one adds a new package, then this
>> package is snatched but it requires another package which is not on
>> the computer or the newer version of the package which is already
>> there and in turn ... and all this is while one is traveling with no
>> or lousy internet connection and all this just to save a fistful of
>> gigs not sufficient even for  one HD movie
>>
> AFAIK auto download can be disabled in MiKTeX. It is no problem in
> principle to add some configuration setting for enabling/disabling it.
> Or it may say: "I am going to download a missing package. Do you want
> me to do it?" All users thus can be satisfied, those who like auto
> download as well as those who do not like it and wish to do it always
> manually.

And if you are offline or have a lousy connexion? It doesn't matter
whether the download would be auto or manual. Right now, the stuff I
need is there - whether I'm on the bus, waiting in a train station, in
the library, wherever. To deal with this issue, you would need an
option *at install time* or a separate release.

And what happens when I have multiple TeX installations installed? If I
switch to TL 2007, I get the packages that came in 2007. If only some
of them were installed and a document needs something further, I'll be
getting a package which may be different - different from the one I got
on that other computer I used, say. So knowing a document compiled fine
with TL 2007 and that I've still got 2007 on my machine won't be
enough. Not unless all of the packages for previous versions are also
available and the automation is extremely smart. (Obviously this
doesn't apply to TL 2007 since that had no such automation but it would
apply to TL 200x in TL 200x+1.)

I also don't like things which try to auto download and install
software "of their own accord" and would personally never enable such
an option. (Or would do what I could to disable it.) But the
complications I'm thinking of above are independent of that concern.

- cfr

>
>> Victor
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> ========================
>> Victor Ivrii, Professor, Department of Mathematics, University of Toronto
>> http://www.math.toronto.edu/ivrii
>>
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