[OS X TeX] /usr/local/texprograms -> /Library/ActiveTeXPrograms
Bruno Voisin
bvoisin at mac.com
Thu Nov 30 17:11:16 CET 2006
Le 30 nov. 06 à 11:52, Jérome Laurens a écrit :
> More seriously, people having more than one distribution at the
> same time, switching from one another, customizing each one are
> more like geeks.
I fully agree with you. Personally I think the move towards having
several TeX distributions installed in parallel is a mistake. That
seems to mean more customizations to perform, more preferences to
set, more esoteric notions to digest for a user being faced to TeX
for the first time.
It feels like making TeX more difficult for many, just to satisfy the
needs of a few. Who but a computer geek will need this (installing,
trying and switching between several different distributions)? IMO
the changes that are currently discussed will only make TeX feel more
elitist for outsiders, and deter them from trying it. Ultimately that
would just reinforce the opinion of TeX users as geeks a bit out of
touch with real life. Something in line with the opinion mentioned
yesterday in the thread "[OS X TeX] TeX and the wild wild world out
there", of TeX users "as being overly precious about aesthetics".
On the other hand, the changes that are discussed are perfectly OK,
and probably beneficial, so long as they can remain completely
transparent to the user: namely, that a user could use TeX for years
and have a fully functional setup without ever having to know that
such a thing as a TeX distribution exists, without ever having to
install a distribution by hand, without ever having to switch between
distributions. Then one could have, to paraphrase the preface of the
1st edition of "LaTeX: A Document Preparation System", both a
comfortable family sedan that just works and fits the needs of the
biggest crowd, and buried inside it a racing car that can be highly
tuned for those that like to live on the edge.
I fear that, with the intended changes, newcomers will feel that
having several TeX distributions installed in parallel is required
for using TeX at all. I think that, should I be now a novice
considering TeX and should I read this, then I would not even give it
a second glance and I would instead look for another typesetting tool.
Bruno Voisin
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