[tex-live] Non-PDF documentation

[Reinhard Kotucha]

On 8 February 2010 Manuel Pegourie-Gonnard wrote:

 > David Kastrup wrote:
 > >> This was discussed in depth already.  DVI is not an option at
 > >> all because DVI files don't incorporate all the needed resources
 > >> (fonts, graphics,...).
 > > 
 > > TeXlive has those resources.  TeXlive is not CTAN or the web.
 > > 
 > The reasoning is as follows:
 > 1. DVI is not suitable for the web, hence not suitable for CTAN.
 > 2. The material in TeX Live is the material from CTAN.
 > 3. Therefore, there will be PDFs in TeX Live.
 > 
 > Besides, TeX Live doesn't always have the resources. The fonts used
 > in a given DVI may not be part of a given TeX Live installation
 > (because the installation is not a full install, or the fonts are
 > non-free, etc.)
 > 
 > (I can find other arguments for PDF, but I guess you'll disagree
 > with them, so I try to keep the discussion on the technical
 > points.)

There are some other technical reasons.  Many documents conatain
\pdfliteral and \special commands which can't be processed by dvi
viewers.  They have to be provided as PDF.

 > If you want to have DVI's in your local installation of TeX Live,
 > please write a script to generate them. If it works, feel free to
 > report success so that others who prefer DVI can benefit from it.

David, do you insist on DVI or are you mostly interested in source
specials or synctex?

Regards,
  Reinhard

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Reinhard Kotucha			              Phone: +49-511-3373112
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