[tex-live] problem with babel package

[Robin Fairbairns]

Reinhard Kotucha <reinhard.kotucha at web.de> wrote:

> On 2011-05-20 at 10:42:04 +0200, Philipp Stephani wrote:
> 
>  > When someone posts a question somewhere about LaTeX, the first
>  > answer is often "your TeX system is outdated." I agree that
>  > requiring every user to install the newest TeX system is not
>  > realistic, but then these answers should be avoided. [...]
> 
> Yes, these laconic answers should be avoided indeed.  In most cases
> people suggest updates only because they see the version number of the
> TeX executable in the log file and haven't read the actual question at
> all.

it's a conversation of the deaf, anyway, since the person asking the
question is unlikely to be able to update.

> Depending on the network connection, such an update can take several
> hours.  Hence, such unqualified responses are quite annoying.
> 
>  > But unfortunately, authors can only support the newest version.
> 
> Authors know what they've changed, thus they can tell you at least
> whether an update is necessary.  And people who want to help could at
> least check whether things work better on an up-to-date system.

but often only if the op has bothered to provide an mwe.

(and another irritating reflex reaction is to ask for an mwe even though
it's perfectly possible to see what's wrong from what has been posted.)

> In short: It's extremely annoying if people say that an update is
> necessary though they don't know themselves whether it solves the
> problem at all.
> 
> Regards,
>   Reinhard
> 
> -- 
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> Reinhard Kotucha                                      Phone: +49-511-3373112
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> Microsoft isn't the answer. Microsoft is the question, and the answer is NO.
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