[tex-live] TL2005 for Windows: paper size revisited

[Harriet B Borton]

Hello Karl,
Thanks for your reply.

Karl Berry wrote: 
> Hi Harriet,
> 
>     changing pdftexconfig.tex is not sufficient to ensure letter paper
>     in pdf files made by pdflatex. I found you must also recreate the
>     formats.
> 
> Ideally, the Windows installer would offer an option to set the paper
> size before any formats are created, to avoid the problem.  If it's not
> already there ... Staszek, Pawel?  Thomas F. did something similar in
> the protext setup.

That would be nice if it's possible.
> 
> As George mentioned, "texconfig paper letter" is supposed to do the
> trick on Unix, and is again supposed to be run at the end of the
> installation, before any formats are made.  (In TL'05 it actually
> remakes *all* the formats, which was a bug, but anyway.)
> 
>     PS All this seems like cruel and unusual punishment for using letter
>     paper.
> 
> Well, the default pretty much has to be one thing or the other.
> Sebastian R. (in England) started TeX Live lo these many years ago,
> and Thomas E. (in Germany) started teTeX even longer ago, so ...

Yes, I don't object to the default being A4-- Just wish switching to
letter weren't so involved. I don't even mind editing the config
files (esp. if they are not read-only to start with).
What surprised me was that it didn't used to be necessary to
recreate the formats; just changing the config files was enough.
(And this still is enough for config.ps.) So something has changed
within the last year or two (I didn't use TL2004 because of lack of
Windows installer) that made pdflatex need new formats after the
config file is changed.
....

> I wish we benighted Americans could switch to A4 paper, the metric
> system, and a halfway rational president, but it seems unlikely to
> happen any time soon :(.

Wholeheartedly agreed!!!
> 
> Cheers,
> karl