[tex-live] TeXLive - installation

Sebastian Rahtz sebastian.rahtz@computing-services.oxford.ac.uk
Fri, 8 Feb 2002 13:22:31 +0000


On Fri, Feb 08, 2002 at 12:04:52PM -0000, david.martland wrote:

> I installed TeXLive in about 20 minutes 
> (OK -it seems to be a big package), but when I tried to test
> it I received a message which indicated that perhaps 
> LaTeX had not been loaded. 

we cannot really answer you without knowing what this message was!

> Also, I had to create
> my own (very short) Latex test file. Surely it would not be 
> too much trouble to provide an auto install

thats exactly what TeXLive tries to provide. most of error
reports are because of the HUGE variety of `Windows' versions out there.
its hard to allow for all of their idiosyncracies!

> I am afraid I am a refugee from the Unix,
> and now mostly use Windows or Mac systems

ah, if you'd stayed in Unix, it would all just work......!

> to create, but I am getting tired of the attitude that nothing 
> good can come out of commercial
> companies, such as Microsoft (Apple is protected, since it 
> is clearly an underdog) - I have
> hardly ever come across any software which originates from 
> academic or other non commercial
> sources which is easy to install.

I am afraid my experiences are not at all the same as yours.
All my bad bang-head-in-wall installation experiences come from
commercial packages.
 
> be a source of delight to some Unix enthusiasts. 
> Of course many end users are very intelligent, but
> they just have better things to do than to spend 
> hours poring over manuals trying to configure software.

Thats true, which is where the whole TeXLive effort comes from;
but I do worry about providing a simple install
to a program which is so very hard to use when you get there.
As in "if you can understand TeX, you can certainly understand
a Unix command line"  - but that is just me, I expect.

> Some academics and enthusiasts seem to be incapable of 
> realising that there was not a golden
> age of software 5,10,15 or 20 years ago, 
> and software which was good then might appear really outdated today.

quite so. which is why people dont use TeX any more. why not
switch to a decent XML environment?

> Indeed, it is only the fact that LaTeX/TeX is capable of doing a good job
> with some difficult text production which keeps it going - it would be 
there are plenty of more modern packages which are very nearly
as good.

sorry if I seem flippant, but I am not sure what you want us to do.
-- 
Sebastian Rahtz      OUCS Information Manager
13 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6NN. Phone +44 1865 283431