[fptex] Re: TeXsetup.exe / Win95(b) installation problem [TeXLive 7 -9/2003]

[Leif Leonhardy]

Hello Fabrice, thanks for your quick response.

Fabrice Popineau wrote:
> All I can suggest regarding win95 is to install Internet Explorer 4.0
> latest release. If it still doesn't work with 4.0, then switch to 5.5.

Well, as I don't use IE at all it is actually 3.0 (Mosaic--), but the
TCP/IP-stack (WinSock) is "up to date" and I never had problems regar-
ding this. I wonder if TeXsetup relies on IE even if "--net-method" is
direct (which is the case).

> I must say I have not tested TeXSetup against win95 recently, only
> against win98.
The mailing list archives tell there are people using Win95 who at least
seem to have less subtle problems - they get error messages or more ob-
servable misbehavior ;-)

> > P.S.: Links to documentation on how to install manually (on Win32) or
> > what TeXsetup really does are very welcome, too, especially those
> > "handcoded"? configuration steps beyond TPM-handling, i.e. PATH and
> > environment variable settings, config file modifications etc.  I guess
> > the Un*x scripts won't work despite of win32-gnus (bash, perl and
> > friends), right?
> 
> No chance. Actually, I usually consider cygwin to be more a nuisance
> than a help. Native Gnu win32 apps are useful, but not for fptex/texlive
> installation.

Does the no-chance quantifier apply to documentation, too? I meant the
Un*x scripts won't be a good guide to manual installation on win32 because
the "interesting" things are for sure handled differently.
The cygwin approach was never mine; I played with mingw32 but didn't keep
track...
 
> >   I actually started trying to update my TeXLive 6b installation, but
> > beside broken links the old TeXsetup was unable to handle the "new"
> > TPM format; the new TeXsetup in turn just seemed to be unaware of my
> > old installation, so I resorted to burning another fresh half a GB :-)
> 
> Sorry, but TeXSetup/2003 is not able to handle an upgrade from any
> previous version.
> 
But (meta) version information in TPMs or the DTD is still no bad idea?
Considering conversion...

To come to an end, console-mode setup would be really nice (and easier
to port), a "native" Windows-Installer would bring more problems for last
millenium's windows, why not do it the indonesian way - for all platforms?

[Though J2SE 1.4+ requires Win98+, and Eclipse is real darkness to Win95 :-]

<flame> tags omitted,
Thanx, Leif