[tex-live] [Fwd: Re: TeXLive Perl + latexmk (windows)]

[Diederick C. Niehorster]

Hi Tomek, Reinhard,

On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 12:12 AM, T T <t34www at googlemail.com> wrote:
> On 14 April 2010 16:33, Andreas Hirsch <nishni_nowgorod at gaponline.de> wrote:
>>
>> A lot was writen the past hours about the seperation under Windows. As
>> of today it is still very difficult to get user-config-files out of
>> C:\users\ ... without trouble
>
> Are you talking about TL or in general? I keep a close watch on where
> our config data go and bug the rest of the team (and also 3rd party
> contributors) whenever they are tempted to put something outside of TL
> managed locations: TEXMFCONFIG and TEXMFVAR. You can move these two
> trees to another location, make corresponding changes in texmf.cnf and
> you are good to go.

My pretty fresh TeX Live 2009 install shows up in 3 places (I'm very
happy to have it in my C root, so please don't bug me on that. and
yes, I'm usually a deepnester, who likes to build elaborate directory
trees):
C:\texlive\2009
C:\texlive\texmf-local
C:\Documents and Settings\DCN\.texlive2009\texmf-var

Directory listing of the last is attached. According to you, the last
should not exist? I'd be happt if its all in C:\texlive\texmf-local
indeed, Or am I misunderstanding the philosophy behind the two and are
you referring to behavior outside these directories?


On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 7:14 AM, Reinhard Kotucha
<reinhard.kotucha at web.de> wrote:
> I don't worry so much about the "look and feel" because TeX is a
> commandline tool anyway.  TeX Live provides very few GUI programs.
> I'm convinced that TeX Live supports Windows very well.  What always
> bothers me is that some people assume that unless TeX Live provides a
> Windows-like "look and feel" it can't recommended to Windows users.
>
> But I strongly disagree.  It's impossible to provide reasonable
> support for Windows and simultaneously treat Windows users as idiots.

I too think that anybody capable of using TeX would also be capable of
using a command line. I also think that it does not matter whether the
install script is a .bat or a .exe. As long as it is clearly
identified in the manual and a user knows how to double-click, there
should be no problem. A program does not need to look like windows for
a user to be able to use it. As long as a button looks like a button
and the text printed on it is clear in meaning, one should be fine.

I don't see the point in spending lots of energy on making the windows
side of tex live look more like windows. Catering to users who get
homesick as soon as there is something slightly non-windows on the
screen should not be a priority. Besides, TeX Live runs great on
windows. Being a windows user myself with virtually no unix-like
experience, TeX Live still feels great to me. Having recently switched
from MikTeX, I'm also happy to say that it feels like TeX Live
produces my documents significantly faster.

Anyway, keep up the good work and please focus on more important
development issues than making windows users feel at home.

Best,
Dee