[tex-live] your eqexam package

[Philip Taylor (Webmaster, Ret'd)]

T T wrote:
Master/tlpkg/bin/tl-update-docindex in our repository.
 >
 >> 2) What would you define as the "source" for the
 >>    attached file [1] ?  In my opinion, the "source"
 >>    is an evanescent sequence of keystrokes, since
 >>    there is no physical copy other than the PDF.
 >>
 >> ** Phil.
 >> --------
 >> [1] This file was created in Open Office Writer,
 >>     and the PDF generated by OOW's "Export as PDF".
 >
 > Oh, please Phil, don't make it harder than it is.  The source is not
 > some mythical animal no one has ever seen.  If you use OOWriter to
 > produce the PDF, then the .odt file is the source.  If you would
 > hand-craft that PDF, then the PDF is the source.  I don't think there
 > is any ambiguity here (at least I don't see it).

I'm not trying to "make it harder than it is" : I'm trying
to point out that the "source" for a document is an
extraordinarily hard thing to define, and that we must
therefore be flexible in terms of our requirements rather
than rigid as at present.  There /is/ no .odt file for
the PDF which I circulated, nor has there ever been,
nor will there ever be : it is clearly possible to go
from an evanescent sequence of keystrokes to a final
PDF file without there ever being a physical instantiation
of a corresponding source document.

Don Story and Ulrike Fisher's work is clearly of interest
and benefit to the TeX community : if they prefer to
offer only a final PDF rather than their own personal
sources for that PDF, then that should (IMHO) be more
than sufficient to allow the inclusion of their work
in TeX Live.

** Phil.