[tex-live] TexLive on a Live CD

[David Kastrup]

Udo Zallmann <cantaro at gmail.com> writes:

> I have been thinking of creating a TexLive Live CD that would
> contain a minimal Linux system and the TexLive installation. Given
> that the compressed DVD image fits on a CD-R (at least it did the
> last time I could find it on a server; in the meantime no current
> DVD image seems to be downloadable from anywhere) and a quite usable
> Linux system can be squeezed in 50 MB, I would like to know if
> anyone has also been thinking in something like it, has already made
> it, and/or knows how to proceed with such an
> experiment. Constructive input is very welcome.

Well, we all have those "wouldn't it be nice" moments where we are
mulling over something we are working with.  So obviously my idea of
this would include a well-configured Emacs with AUCTeX, preview-latex,
RefTeX and probably a few other things.  The all-out-of-one-hand
approach would offer a few incentives for additional functionality.

To wit:

a) all of the dtx documentation files could be compiled with Source
   Specials (to DVI, obviously, instead of PDF) and the respective
   line number information for \DescribeMacro and similar extracted
   into separate files, so that Emacs could fire up the respective
   definitions in either the DVI or dtx when asked to.  Potentially
   useful for source2e, too.  One should also be able to use Source
   Specials for jumping back and forth between DVI and .dtx file.

   If PDF is really necessary, one could compile with a changed
   definition of \DescribeMacro and the macrocode environments that
   would place links like #\fancyref (for \DescribeMacro and similar)
   and #42 (for the line number in the dtx file).

   This is not really so very much Emacs-specific, but would provide
   great integration possibilities with other editors as well.

b) It might be a nice idea to create info files from the documentation
   part of dtx files, too.

For the "I don't want Emacs" fraction, one could add Kile (which has
the disadvantage of dragging the whole KDE stuff onto the disk).  I
don't really like the idea to add LyX: it would basically make the CD
a chimaera between a LyX and a LaTeX solution and would suggest to
people that they can switch easily while LyX actually is a completely
different world with a LaTeX backend only.  Still, the overlap between
a LyX disk and a "pure" LaTeX disk is probably so large as not to
warrant separate projects.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum