[fptex] Installing fptex

[ALAN A DUNWELL]

Date sent:      	Thu, 06 Jun 2002 09:12:52 +0200
From:           	Fabrice Popineau <Fabrice.Popineau@supelec.fr>
Subject:        	Re: [fptex] Installing fptex
To:             	ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk
Copies to:      	Sebastian Rahtz <sebastian.rahtz@computing-services.oxford.ac.uk>,
	"Hillas, John" <j.hillas@auckland.ac.nz>, fptex@tug.org

> * ripley  <ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk> writes:
> 
> > I have never had that problem on Windows 2000 or XP, and I don't
> > understand how Windows file association could affect visibility per
> > se (although if that file type is `hidden' or `system' then perhaps
> > it could).  AFAIK it is standard in Windows to associate .cnf with
> > Speeddial, so I would have expected everyone (including Fabrice) to
> > be affected by this if it was standard.
> 
> Definitely. Especially, I don't see how it could affect visibility by
> the TeX programs. I admit it is a bit confusing to see this speeddial
> icon, but I can't change either the Windows file association or the
> Web2c extension used for configuration files.
> 
> John: My opinion is that you might have another problem. Investigation
> would require to trace some kpsewhich command at the point you think
>  .cnf files are not found by TeX. I can help if you want to do that.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Fabrice
> 
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John is not alone in this problem. While I see it as a speeddial on multiple 
machines that we install on at the institute, I have never had any problem with 
fpTeX finding it or using it. AFAIK this association gets established by the 
installation of MS Office, I'm not sure which version this started at. There is 
a problem if you try to edit the .cnf file in that Windows doesn't want you to 
open a speeddial file with notepad or wordpad. I have found it necessary/useful 
to start a Windows Explorer instance. Then in Win98 select View, Folder 
Options, and the File Types tab (in win2k, etc select Tools, then Folder 
Options, file types tab). This brings up the same list of associations that you 
see if Windows doesn't know how to start a file/program. In Win 98 you will 
have to search for the Speed Dial selection and remove it. In Win2k and later 
MS _finally_ ordered them by extension, so search for CNF and delete the Speed 
Dial selection. Of course this will break automatic opening of .cnf files by 
the speed dial thingie if anyone uses that.

Like others have suggested, it is probably a good idea to disable all the 
hiding of system files and extensions so you can see what files/folders you are 
really dealing with w/o MS doing so much "help" for you.

Alan D.



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