[tex-live] Ruby interpreter for Windows in the TeXLive distribution?

[Reinhard Kotucha]

>>>>> "Taco" == Taco Hoekwater <taco at elvenkind.com> writes:

  > Richard Gabriel wrote:
  >> Regarding ConTeXt itself - with the current distribution (TeXLive
  >> 2005), it is possible to install TeXLive and run ConTeXt directly
  >> (because the version included still uses Perl scripts). If you
  >> add the recent ConTeXt into the next TeXLive distribution, the
  >> Windows users will have to install something additional or they
  >> will probably use ConTeXt with the old Perl scripts.

  > Most Linux distributions also have no ruby by default.

I don't think that it's a big problem to install Ruby from a Linux
distribution.  Does anyone know about a Linux distribution which does
not provide Ruby?  Is there a Linux distribution which does not
provide sam2p?

Including Ruby for UNIX would mean to integrate it into the Build tree
so that binaries for all platforms can be created. 

There had been a discussion on the teTeX list about texinfo many years
ago.  Many people preferred the texinfo version provided by the system.

For Windows the situation is different:  Though I agree with Hans that
it is quite easy to install 3rd party software, it is annoying to find
out from where to get the latest release and download it.  Ruby is not
the only thing, there are also ghostscript, graphics conversion tools,
emacs... 

As David said, there is the live system.  People who are using it
usually never used TeX before and just want to try.  They are very
impatient, of course, and they give up if they are not able to make it
work in a reasonable amount of time.

The live version is on the DVD and I think it's not a problem to
provide everything Windows users need.  I don't know how much space is
left on the install CD, former or later the installer will say "Insert
Disk 2" anyway.

Regards,
  Reinhard

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Reinhard Kotucha			              Phone: +49-511-4592165
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