[tex-live] distribution policy (was verbatimcopy package missing)

[Robin Fairbairns]

Zdenek Wagner <zdenek.wagner at gmail.com> wrote:

> 2008/9/19 Ulrike Fischer <news2 at nililand.de>:
> > Am Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:29:28 +0100 schrieb Robin Fairbairns:
> >
> >> minitoc's documentation is outright mad.
> >
> > megadoc from minitoc ;-).
>
> IMO the free licenses say that the sources must be available from the
> same source but do not say that all users must install them. Thus
> option "do not install sources" may be generally useful. It is
> sufficient if the user knows how to obtain the sources if he or she
> wants them.

the problem with minitoc is that the documentation is such as to
discourage *anyone* from even reading it, let alone acquiring it.

imo, a moderately complicated package (such as minitoc), without access
to the docs, is pretty much useless.  sure, the experienced user should
be allowed to ignore the docs, but that's not a useful long-term
strategy for any system.

the only *useful* thing to do with minitoc is to persuade jean-pierre to
rationalise its docs.  i'm still inclined to think the package itself is
bloated, but i'm not enough of an expert in multilanguage tex to be
sure.

we on the ctan team need to work on this.  (the last three times he's
produced a new version, we've thrown up our hands and said "something
ought to be done about this" ... but none of us can (usually) afford the
time to work on it.)

r