[tex-live] Amended draft letter (was : install-tl-windows.bat unavailable in Microsoft Store)

[George Stewart]

If you can somehow reach Bill Gates, the letter should get the VIP treatment it deserves: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-loves-donald-knuth-the-art-of-computer-programming-2016-4

Sent from my iPhone

> On Dec 11, 2018, at 07:54, Philip Taylor <P.Taylor at Rhul.Ac.Uk> wrote:
> 
> Draft letter; comments welcomed.
> 
> Dear <whoever> — 
> 
> I write on behalf of the TeX User Group, and on behalf of (literally) millions of TeX users worldwide.  TeX  is a typesetting system without equal, created by Professor Donald E. Knuth in 1978 in order to allow him to re-typeset The Art of Computer Programming to the same standards as those achieved when the first edition was published using traditional hot-lead technology.  Over the next four years Professor Knuth re-wrote substantial parts of TeX and released TeX version 2, to be followed about a decade later by version 3, the version almost universally used today.  Almost since its inception, TeX has run on Microsoft platforms — Eberhard Mattes wrote emTeX for MS/DOS, others developed versions for Microsoft Windows, and until now there have been no significant difficulties in supporting each new version of Windows as it was released.
> 
> But recently, an impasse has been reached, with the announcement of Windows 10 "S-mode".  As you know, far better than we, S-mode is intended to lock down Windows such that no program that does not come directly from the Microsoft Store can be installed and run.  Having consulted the technical guidelines describing the constraints placed on a program which is to run in S-mode, TeX's development/implementation team are very concerned that because (for example) TeX makes widespread use of CMD.exe, that in itself is sufficient reason for TeX to be disbarred.
> 
> We would therefore be very grateful if you could nominate someone within Microsoft with whom we could liaise directly, with a view to     ascertaining how these obstacles to the inclusion of TeX (and its adjunct programs) in the Microsoft Store portfolio might best be overcome.
> 
> Many thanks in advance for any help you can offer :
> Philip Taylor
> for and on behalf of the TeX User Group.
> 
>> Boris Veytsman wrote:
>>> PT> From: Philip Taylor <P.Taylor at Rhul.Ac.Uk>
>>> PT> Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2018 18:59:45 +0000
>>> 
>>> PT> Maybe if we [we]re to ask someone with a little tact and diplomacy to write 
>>> PT> the letter we might have a better chance.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Philip,
>>> 
>>> As the President of TUG I hereby designate you my representative
>>> responsible for contacts with Microsoft.  If you need my signature on
>>> any document, let me know.
> 
> -- 
> <Signature.jpg>
> Philip Taylor
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