TeX directory structures

[Charles Karney]

NAME: Charles Karney

EMAIL: karney@princeton.edu

TEX IMPLEMENTATION: Unix web2c from Karl Berry

This version of TeX currently supports (delete ones which don't apply):

 * many-level subdirectory searching with pruning (for example you can
   specify fonts//tfm and it will find
   fonts/adobe/times/tfm/ptmr7t.tfm)

By this time next year, this version of TeX should (don't worry, we
won't hold you to this one!) support:

 * many-level subdirectory searching with a cache

If the TUG technical working group ask us to, we will implement:

 * many-level subdirectory searching with a cache

Any other comments:

(1) I think the directory structure proposed in the HIER file in kpathsea
for PK files is overly complicated.  I would like to see ALL the PK files
for a particular printer in a single directory (with the MF mode name stuck
somewhere).  This would allow the directory to be cleaned periodically
(with maketexpk used to regenerate the PK files as needed).

(2) However, more importantly I find myself worrying about the directory
structure too much.  I would much prefer installation with a command such
as
    make install
Then, I really don't mind what the directory structure is as long as it's
well documented.  (See for instance the X11R6 installation.  The
configuration of this massive software package is very simple.)

(3) The default configuration (for Unix) should be
    executables in /usr/local/bin
    man pages in /usr/local/man
    macros, etc in /usr/local/lib/tex (or mf or texmf)

(4) Noone seems to know where to put the miscellaneous documentation files.
This is becoming more important with the use of docstrip.  Perhaps
/usr/local/doc/???

-- 
   Charles Karney
   Plasma Physics Laboratory	  E-mail:  Karney@Princeton.EDU
   Princeton University		  Phone:   +1 609 243 2607
   Princeton, NJ 08543-0451	  FAX:	   +1 609 243 2662