why is e.g. web2c in the texmf tree?

[Werner Lemberg]

I'm quite sure that this has been discussed extensively, but I could not
find a hint for the very reason.

My goal is to build a common texmf tree for an emTeX and teTeX 0.4
installation, and the web2c directory contains material which is
definitely teTeX specific (I use a second texmf tree to overcome this
problem) having extensions longer than 3 characters etc.

Another question which is also related to the TDS: will web2c-7.0 support
DOS filename searching? E.g. LongTable.sty: first you search
LongTable.sty, then longtable.sty, then longtabl.sty (8.3), and finally
longtble.sty (5+3.3). Then you could access TDS trees on CDROMs without
great problems.


    Werner