[tex-live] TeX Live installer -- an idea for TeX Live 2017

[Reinhard Kotucha]

On 2016-07-12 at 11:24:51 +0100, Philip Taylor wrote:

 > Unable to rsynch, I have fallen back on the tried, tested but slow,
 > http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet/install-tl-windows.exe,
 > and as every year, after the initial dialogue has completed, I am
 > told "Installing 12many, installing 2up, installing Asana Maths, 
 > ...".  Now, the probability that the first thing that a user would
 > want to access being "12many" is vanishing small, so could not the
 > installation proceed in a more logical fashion, i.e.:
 > 
 >     <binaries for current platform>
 >     <support files to enable basic TeX, PdfTeX, XeTeX, ...  use>
 >     <build basic formats, etc>
 >     <support files for LaTeX>
 >     <build LaTeX formats, etc>
 >     <support files for other formats>
 >     <build other formats, etc>
 >     <anything left over>
 >     <rebuild formats, etc., if necessary>
 > 
 > In that way, a user could start testing TeX Live 2017 (+) within a
 > few minutes of commencing installation, whereas at the moment he or
 > she has to wait until the entire download is complete and all
 > formats (etc) built, which in my case can confidently be predicted
 > to be several hours ...

Dear Phil,
Tex Live is modular, hence you don't have to install everything at
once.  Admittedly, it's often not easy to determine in advance which
collections are needed and thus we recommend less experienced users to
install scheme-full unconditionally.

You are certainly experienced enough to customize your installation.
Don't know how much time you can save.  Even if you disable
collections which only contain LaTeX packages, it's quite difficult to
find out which font collections you need.  Such investigations
definitely take more time than a full install.

It seems that your internet connection is much slower than mine.  I
actually don't know how much time I need to install TL from the
internet because I have a local mirror on my Raspberry Pi and I always
install/update from this mirror.

I vaguely remember that you once mentioned that your download rate is
2 Mb/s.  Just cancel the contract.  There is no risk.  Your ISP will
contact you immediately and offer better conditions for the same or a
similar amount of money.  There is no need nowadays to spend several
hours in order to install TeX Live unless you are living in a rural
area where no ISP is willing to provide the necessary infrastructure.
And you can always consult other ISPs.

I intend to change my ISP in the near future too, for the same reason.

Regards,
  Reinhard

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------
Reinhard Kotucha                            Phone: +49-511-3373112
Marschnerstr. 25
D-30167 Hannover                    mailto:reinhard.kotucha at web.de
------------------------------------------------------------------