[fptex] fptex 0.7

[Harriet B Borton]

Hi Fabrice,

You wrote: 
> Due to a few bugs that have been reported since TL2003 has been frozen,
> I have updated fptex 0.7 on ftp://ftp.dante.de/pub/fptex/0.7/ .
> 
> The main problems that have been fixed :
> 
> - some cs*.bat files had bad eol chars (no ^M, so failed)
> - french.ldf (babel) fixed
> - TeXSetup creates a TEXMFTEMP variable with short pathnames, so
> ImageMagick has a chance to create temporary files usable for it
> (without spaces in path name)
> - ImageMagick upgraded
> - Ghostscript and Gsview recompiled, Gsview added.
> 
> Either use Ghostscript and Gsview provided with fptex or use standard
> versions : you can't mix them.

Thank you for your fixes.
 
Each year I make many copies of the TeXLive CD and give them to
students and faculty here to install on their Windows
machines. (Last year I personally gave out about 80 copies of TL7, 
and I've got a waiting list now for TL 2003.) Since it's
going to be several more weeks till I receive the CDs from TUG,
I've downloaded the image and burned my own (the install CD).

With the changes this year (no Winshell, WinEdt, GSView), and the
bug list, I'm now trying to sort out the easiest way for our users,
many of whom have never used LaTeX before, to install what they
need. But I'm confused about a few things!

- The TeXLive bugs page says to replace the TeXSetup.exe file and
use Add Package to get support/imagemagick (btw, there is no
"support"; just "xemtex"), and you can also get fixed ghostscript
and gsview.
My question is: if a user doesn't want imagemagick or tex4ht, and
gets gsview and ghostscript independently, is this step necessary? I
guess I don't have a clear idea of what this is fixing, and whether
it's a good idea to replace TeXSetup.exe in any case.
(BTW, I noticed that even with "internet only" checked, unless you
change the local depot box to C:\TPM from D:\TPM, it won't work-- 
can't read the tpm files. Also, doing the Add Package thing crashed
my computer. I tried again with antivirus disabled and it was ok. )

- Is there an advantage to getting gsview and ghostscript from the
fptex site? Have you made changes to make them work better?
It's a bit disconcerting not to have gsview on the Start menu,
and also both WinEdt and Winshell don't find it unless changes
are made to those programs-- they both expect gsview32.exe in 
ghostgum/gsview/. (The change is easy in WinShell, not so easy
in WinEdt.) If getting them from the official sites is ok, do you
have any recommendations about the best versions?

- What process/program sets the various TEMP variables? I wanted to
check for unwanted spaces, and I looked at autoexec.bat (Win98)
and didn't see any TEMP variables set. I haven't done the install
on my WinXP machine yet, but I will later.

- What is the difference between fptex and the TL2003 install CD? 
Does TL2003 include more "extras"? If they are the same, would it 
be easier for people to install fptex? (And then get
WinShell/WinEdt?
Virtually none of the users I help use emacs.)

I'd appreciate any advice or guidance you can give.
Thanks,
-Harriet 

-- 
Harriet B. Borton
Applications Consultant, Academic and Research Computing
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
bortonh at rpi.edu