The new distribution

[Fabrice POPINEAU]

"John Hillas" <j.hillas@auckland.ac.nz> writes:

> 
> Fabrice, is the intention to only distribute the executable installation
> program? 

No. You will get zip files this afternoon (if everything goes well).
I needed to test the installer for TeX-Live 4 .

I have spent (lost ?) lot of time trying to use some so-called 'professional'
tool to devise an installer for fpTeX. It proves to be not so
simple. Even if InstallShield has all the concepts needed, it does not 
make your life easier. Maybe it is very valuable for projects with low 
number of files, but for big projects (TL4 has more than 32000 files), 
it is not very reliable. 

Moreover packaging TeX  in a smart  way  is not  obvious. Ideally, you
could require the setup to install any latex/plain/generic package, or
some documentation you  forgot at first and  such. It is painful to do
this kind of thing with IS.

So given the time spent, IS will be used for TL4 and fpTeX-0.3 . Next
I will look for (any) other kind of solution.

The zip files will always be available for users who aren't afraid to
set their own configuration by hand. And zip compresses files far
better than IS.

-- 
Fabrice