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

[Bastian Philipps]

Jonathan Kew said the following on 7.10.2005 12:54 Uhr:
> 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

That's the explanation, that has been in the back of my mind the whole 
time. But thanks a lot for taking the time and explaining in debt.

On a second thought, that's exactly what some of my friends with a 
lesser affinity to IT complained about the complexity of the 
i-installer. So next time round I will just hand them the MacTeX-Disk!

Greetings and thanks again for your work
Bastian

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