TeX directory structures

[Wayne G. Sullivan]

I have worked with the implementation of
                   sbTeX for msdos
                    web2pc (gjgpp dos version of web2c programs)
Both these are limited by the (lack of) operating system msdos. sbTeX
currently searches single directories: inputs, fonttfms (formats should
not be a problem) but multiple directories can be searched by means of
setting environmentals. If ever a future version of sbTeX becomes advisable,
such a version will search all subdirectories of the inputs and tfm
directories. The 640K limitation of 16 bit dos does not justify any more
subtle searches.
The web2pc version is 32bit and includes Karl Berry's kpathsearch. However,
dos still has the 8.3 filename limitation and does not distinguish case in
file names. Any future implementations should, I believe, honour the 8.3
structure unless there are very good reasons for doing otherwise. DOS is
still very widely used. That LL could not have seen fit to shorten the
name of lcircle10 by one letter has caused a lot of extra work. If the
TeX file structure does not break the dos file name limits, the web2pc
version should be able to match the path search capabilities of the web2c
version, though with limited efficiency.
 
Wayne Sullivan