[tex-live] Install file of the TL should have unique name

[Reinhard Kotucha]

On 2014-01-17 at 18:10:10 +0100, Denis Bitouzé wrote:

 > Le vendredi 17/01/14 à 11h09,
 > Siep Kroonenberg <siepo at cybercomm.nl> a écrit :
 > 
 > > We shall look at that for the next release. However, as long as
 > > people just click the right link on
 > > http://www.tug.org/texlive/acquire-netinstall.html, they never have
 > > to see this list.
 > 
 > Except for those who install TL from a DVD shipped by their
 > TUG. And, similarly, for the LaTeX courses I give in some French
 > universities, I provided to the students an up to date TL (thanks
 > to rsync) as an .iso file on a USB stick.

I'm convinced that it's sufficient to add the word "windows" to the
names of the .bat files.

Since the Exploder sorts files alphabetically by default, I suppose
that Windows users see immediately that there are scripts dedicated to
them.

There are many ways to install TeX Live.  The preferred way is to use
the network installer because the ISO image is often quite old and if
a user runs "tlmgr update" he downloads zillions of packages again.
This can be quite time consuming and annoying.

The only situation where the distribution of an ISO image makes sense
is if it's essential that every user has exactly the same copy.  But
then you also have to make sure that users can't update TeX Live.

In all other cases it's better to follow Lars' advice: Distribute an
up-to-date TeX Live on USB sticks.  I don't think that it's much more
difficult than your approach.  But if you prepare the USB sticks today
for a LaTeX course next week, "tlmgr update" will update only a few
packages and your audience will be grateful for that.

I strongly recommend to evaluate Lars' approach.

Regards,
  Reinhard
 
-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reinhard Kotucha                                      Phone: +49-511-3373112
Marschnerstr. 25
D-30167 Hannover                              mailto:reinhard.kotucha at web.de
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Microsoft isn't the answer. Microsoft is the question, and the answer is NO.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------