ConTeXt in TeX Live

[Mikael Sundqvist]

Ho Norbert,

(I'm not subscribed to the texlive list, so I hope this will work out OK)

> Are luametatex binaries still changing on a daily basis, and context
> sources always requiring the latest luametatex binaries?

Yes, Hans is working on a daily basis. He pushes binaries, and some of
us that are involved pull them and test stuff. That does not
necessarily mean that something becomes unstable. It is usually new
additional functionality (example: additional parpasses, you can read
about them in the latest tugboat), or some restructuring/optimization.
Those changes do occur in the "work" branch anyways, and to the
"normal" ConTeXt user they are no big deal, since they typically do
not change life for them.

The other files in the context distribution of course need to be
synced with binary changes.

> I thought that phase has passed some years ago?

No. But no big deal for the ConTeXt users.

> If not, then @Max this is a serious problem indeed.

Yes, maybe. And I must say that I am a bit surprised about how this
happened. Hans was not involved or asked if it would be a good idea to
update ConTeXt also during the year, the initiative came from
elsewhere. It is indeed a bit surprising, since the TexLive policy
seems to (have) be(en) not to update binaries during the year. For
this reason, Hans has put some extra effort for the releases that go
into TeXLive (early spring). The other few releases during the year
could maybe be considered beta. They usually work very well, and in
particular, they work OK for the usual ConTeXt standalone users, who
somehow know that if there is a problem somewhere they send an email
to the ConTeXT mailing list, and things get sorted. That way, new
stuff also has the chance to be tested a bit before ending up in
TeXLive.

To me the fetching and fixing that is going on now sounds a bit
fragile, but maybe Max has sorted it out. It also seems that in
TeXLive the luametatex source is stripped. That source would otherwise
have been synced with the ConTeXt version (if taken from the zip), and
users would at least have been able to compile it and that way have a
binary that matches.

This might also have consequences for the ConTeXt standalone users,
since Hans probably feels now that he has to be more careful when
doing these intermediate releases for them, knowing that they will go
into TeXLive.

I understand that Max put a lot of effort in this and that some people
are happy about it. But I wonder if it really was the right thing to
do.

> Best

> Norbert

> PS: I faintly remember that we have these discussion like every time
> context comes up, since about a few decades now ... how depressing.

I don't understand what discussions you have in mind. Updating
binaries between the releases is not something that has been going on
for decades, right?

Best, Mikael