[tex-live] your eqexam package

[Philip Taylor (Webmaster, Ret'd)]

Reinhard Kotucha wrote:
> On 9 July 2010 Philip Taylor (Webmaster, Ret'd) wrote:
>
>   >  I can only second Staszek's wise words.
>
> Phil, I assume that you think that TeX Live's policy is too
> restrictive.

Yes, I do.

> But please keep in mind that this is not only TeX Live's
> policy, almost every open source O/S insists on the sources too.
> Most TeX users on Linux are using a TeX Live shipped by the Linux
> distro they are using and it would be a pity if Linux distributors
> can't ship TL as it is.

OK, let's start with the opening phrase of the second sentence :
"Most TeX users on Linux".  Now I readily admit that I have no
idea what fraction of the total users of TeX Live is represented
by "TeX users on Linux", but I /suspect/ (and it is only a suspicion)
that they don't represent the majority of users of TeX Live.
Rather, I would suggest that the majority of users of TeX Live
are represented by the recently stated view of Professor Martin :
"for most of us ordinary users, having a working package with
documentation is to be preferred to having no package included
because its documentation has no source code", or perhaps even
by my own view "for most of us ordinary users, having a working
package with documentation is to be preferred to having a working
package without documentation because its documentation has no
source code".

So that really leaves us with the question "for whom is TeX Live
intended".  If it is the group you identify (TeX users on Linux,
using a version of TeX Live shipped with their Linux distribution),
then I am sympathetic to your position even if I disagree with
it; but if it is the group on behalf of whom Professor Martin
and I are trying to speak ("the man on the Number 53 Clapham
Common Omnibus"), then the present requirement to provide source
for all documentation is counter-productive and I for one would
urge that it be rescinded.

> Removing packages from TL breaks existing documents, hence it's best
> to remove them as soon as possible, i.e. before even more people rely
> on them.

Actually, it's best not to remove them at all :-)

** Phil.