next version

[Fabrice Popineau]

One of the very nice features of web2c is that it allows complete separation
between the 'system' distribution and anything local to your site.

So yes, it should be possible to upgrade the system from a reference distribution
and still keep ones own local set of files. Texconfig might help in the process. The only 
problem I can see is what to do when texmf.cnf itself is upgraded.


Fabrice

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Tapio Huuhka <tapio.huuhka@dlc.fi>
To: Fabrice POPINEAU <popineau@ese-metz.fr>
Cc: <fptex@tug.org>
Sent: Friday, February 05, 1999 5:44 PM
Subject: Re: next version


>Anything that will keep the size of the download reasonable will be
>beneficial :-). Somehow the idea of a reference system sounds good.
>At least to someone like me, who wants to make a minimum effort to get
>any software running, but still would like to get to know the system
>and perhaps make some changes later. Would that also facilitate
>optional configurations and system upgrades? 
>
>Tapio
>----------
>> From: Fabrice POPINEAU <popineau@ese-metz.fr>
>> To: Jody Klymak <jklymak@apl.washington.edu>
>> Cc: fptex@tug.org
>> Subject: Re: next version
>> Date: 4. helmikuuta 1999 18.37
>> 
>> 
>> Ok, will make the info/man pages available and remove the developper
>> stuff.
>> 
>> Another point that bothers me a bit is the size of the
>> distribution. First tests using InstallShield resulted in a 40Mb
>file.
>> 
>> The goal of using IS was to allow people to install only things they
>> want. But if they first need to download a 40Mb file from the net
>> ... in one piece moreover...
>> 
>> I wonder how to handle that point ? I mean, most people don't want
>> Omega right now (or many other packages or ...), but the tarball has
>> everything in it . There is no simple way to split it.
>> 
>> So I wondered (maybe a silly idea) ... why not having a 'reference'
>> installation and build a small utility upon wget that will mirror the
>> reference installation ? That might minimize downloads.
>> 
>> Another option would be to have IS install only binaries and to rely
>on
>> texconfig (don't worry ,I'm still working on it !) for adding
>> packages. But people would always need to download at least the
>> teTeX-texmf.tgz file which is 22Mb right now.
>> 
>> Obviously, the TeX-Live CD distribution will benefit from IS much
>more
>> than the regular net available one.
>> 
>> -- 
>> Fabrice 
>