[OS X TeX] Re: Open Testing of MacTeX Distribution

[Jonathan Kew]

On 7 Oct 2005, at 11:15 am, Bastian Philipps wrote:

> Herbert Schulz said the following on 7.10.2005 1:47 Uhr:
>
>
>> The "MacTeX" package is based on Gerben's gwTeX, and also installs
>> XeTeX, TeXShop, and more.  The distribution as a whole also  
>> includes a
>> number of other applications and documents for your perusing and
>> installation pleasure.
>>
>
> It's more Feedback than a Bug-Report. But what I am missing in this  
> whole package is the chance to deselect some of the provided  
> applications.
> For example, my simple academic papers only need a basic TeX- 
> Installation, include in that all packages so far mentioned on  
> http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/%7Ekoch/texshop/installing.html
>
> So installing Context and XeTeX is rather superfluous and locks up  
> Diskspace, which is why a deinstalling feature inside the mpkg  
> would be nice.

Yes, I can understand this; but it complicates the process of  
building (and testing), and means that new/naive users (the people  
for whom this is primarily intended) will not necessarily have a  
"standard" setup any more, which leads to all kinds of support  
headaches.

If you are already using TeX and happily running i-Installer to stay  
up to date, etc., there's really no reason you'd need the MacTeX  
installer package. (The overall collection of resources on the disk  
might still be handy to have.) The "one-step" installer is intended  
for those new to TeX on OS X, and aims to make it *really* simple to  
get a solid, general-purpose setup.

If we did start making parts of the install optional, where would  
this end? One person may want the option of deselecting ConTeXt and  
XeTeX; but another might want to omit a lot of the extra fonts; and  
another might not need LaTeX at all. Myself, I don't generally have  
any use for Ghostscript, or for ImageMagick; it would save space on  
my disk if these could be omitted.

Anyhow, the philosophy of this package is to provide one "known good"  
configuration that should be adequate for most purposes, and  
particularly for new users wanting to try TeX. If you already know  
enough about the TeX world to make your own decisions as to what you  
do/don't wish to install, you still have the option of using i- 
Installer and other tools to manage your own installation.

Hope this helps explain.

JK
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