[tex-live] CTAN has a new package: hwkatakana

[Werner LEMBERG]

[about the CJK and hwkatakana packages; the latter replaces two files
 from the former]

>   intentionally) replaces two font metrics files (udmjff.{vf,tfm};
>
> Oh dear.  I hadn't noticed that.  As things stand, both the CJK and
> hwk versions of those files are in the tree, so which one gets found
> is a matter of chance.

Uh, oh.

> The only approach I can think of (not great) is to
> - remove the files from the CJK install in TL;

I don't like that.

> - make CJK depend on hwk;

Well, they aren't dependent...

> Wdyt?

What about the following:

  . The main idea is to have copies of those two files in special
    subdirectories in the TDS:

      <TEXMF>/backup/hwkatakana/udmjff.{vf,tfm}
      <TEXMF>/backup/cjk/udmjff.{vf,tfm}

    The former two are installed by the hwkatakana package, the latter
    by the cjk package.

  . If hwkatakana gets installed, the two files (in the standard TDS
    location) are always overridden.

  . If hwkatakana gets uninstalled, restore the original files if
    copies are present in backup/cjk/.

  . If CJK gets installed or uninstalled, check whether there is
    something in backup/hwkatakana.  Otherwise, install or uninstall
    udmjff.{vf.tfm}.

To say it with a different point of view:

  CJK install:

    . Copy the two files to backup/cjk/.
    . Copy the two files to the original location if they are not
      present in backup/hwkatakana/.

  CJK uninstall:

    . Remove the two files from backup/cjk/.
    . Remove the two files from the original location if they are not
      present in backup/hwkatakana.

  hwkatakana install:

    . Copy the two files two backup/hwkatakana/.
    . Copy the two files to the original location unconditionally.

  hwkatakana uninstall:

    . Remove the two files from backup/hwkatakana/.
    . If the two files are present in backup/cjk/, copy them to the
      original locations.

> Of course, it would be better not to have this "replacement" in the
> first place, but I assume there is good reason for it.

Yes, and it can't be avoided.  I can imagine that such a conflict
happens in the future too, so I've invested some time to think about a
possible generic solution.  A simplification would be to copy the
whole CJK and hwkatakana packages to backup/... during installation,
and everything gets copied back to the original places if needed, but
this is (a) a waste of disk space and (b) probably a bad idea if done
unasked -- despite of warnings, users might modify files directly in
the TDS main tree...


    Werner