<div dir="ltr"><div>Hi all,</div><div><br></div><div>Yes. I am well aware that my problems are not everyone's. That said, searching for Perl.exe throwing an error on a <span class="gmail-gr_ gmail-gr_262 gmail-gr-alert gmail-gr_spell gmail-gr_inline_cards gmail-gr_run_anim gmail-ContextualSpelling" id="gmail-262" style="display:inline;border-bottom:2px solid transparent;background-repeat:no-repeat;color:inherit;font-size:inherit">texlive</span> install under <span class="gmail-gr_ gmail-gr_327 gmail-gr-alert gmail-gr_spell gmail-gr_inline_cards gmail-gr_run_anim gmail-ContextualSpelling gmail-ins-del gmail-multiReplace" id="gmail-327" style="display:inline;border-bottom:2px solid transparent;background-repeat:no-repeat;color:inherit;font-size:inherit">windows</span> 7 results in a lot of hits so apparently it isn't just me. </div><div><br></div><div>I know of no applications that install any software on <span class="gmail-gr_ gmail-gr_598 gmail-gr-alert gmail-gr_gramm gmail-gr_inline_cards gmail-gr_run_anim gmail-Grammar gmail-only-ins gmail-doubleReplace gmail-replaceWithoutSep" id="gmail-598" style="display:inline;border-bottom:2px solid transparent;background-repeat:no-repeat;color:inherit;font-size:inherit">root</span> in windows or Linux by default. I have used both extensively for more than 15 years. I mention setting paths precisely because it is a port. The defaults since Vista was to install user applications in their AppData directory. Python does this. Python 2.7 used to install under root this but they stopped and now follow the common paths. The default location since XP was to install 32-bit applications in C:\Program Files (x86)\ and 64-bit applications in C:\Program Files\. Both require admin rights. Since you know if they are running the install as admin and you know that it is windows, it shouldn't be too difficult to set a default path better than root.<br></div><div><br></div><div>Regarding Philip's response, that is true and texlive already seems to partition the executables well in a normal user install. I can't think of a better place for computer-wide data. I have seen way worse than to place computer wide and accessible files and folders within Program Files. At the very least, the default single user should probably be in AppData. </div><div><br></div><div>Installing directly under C:\ requires admin rights and is typically frowned upon. Telling users to disable security features is quite bad. This isn't an opinion. If someone handed code to you and told you to run it as root but make sure to disable your firewalls and anti-virus software, you shouldn't install it. We are well past the era where we just get to magically trust code. Also, unfortunately, users might not know how to disable a firewall or even have rights to do so. I don't know what Perl is doing to need ports open but given that it seems to be a persistent problem and has been for at least 4 years, I wish to bring it to your attention. I don't know how difficult that would be to fix and I don't know what the error is. </div><div><br></div><div>Basically, I tried installing it, the install still gives errors, I don't know <span class="gmail-gr_ gmail-gr_2271 gmail-gr-alert gmail-gr_gramm gmail-gr_inline_cards gmail-gr_run_anim gmail-Punctuation gmail-only-del gmail-replaceWithoutSep" id="gmail-2271" style="display:inline;border-bottom:2px solid transparent;background-repeat:no-repeat;color:inherit;font-size:inherit">why,</span> the error messages are less than helpful, it seemed to require a full <span class="gmail-gr_ gmail-gr_2276 gmail-gr-alert gmail-gr_spell gmail-gr_inline_cards gmail-gr_run_anim gmail-ContextualSpelling gmail-ins-del gmail-multiReplace" id="gmail-2276" style="display:inline;border-bottom:2px solid transparent;background-repeat:no-repeat;color:inherit;font-size:inherit">perl</span> install, and the -v <span class="gmail-gr_ gmail-gr_2306 gmail-gr-alert gmail-gr_spell gmail-gr_inline_cards gmail-gr_run_anim gmail-ContextualSpelling gmail-ins-del gmail-multiReplace" id="gmail-2306" style="display:inline;border-bottom:2px solid transparent;background-repeat:no-repeat;color:inherit;font-size:inherit">gui</span> text seemed to work but again, I don't know why. </div><div><br></div><div>Oh. Another note about the installer. If perl.exe does crash, the install looks like it completes. It would be nice to give an error message saying that the install did not complete successfully. </div><div><br></div><div>Believe it or not, I don't want to sound mean. This product is awesome. It is just too complex to give to someone who isn't a developer and tell them to install it and following your advice opens their computer up to vulnerabilities. Since Lyx is actually that simple and Lyx demands a TexLive install, I would love to see it get to a point where a normal user can simply install it or report useful errors. Way easier said than done I am sure. </div><div><br></div><div>Thanks,</div><div>~Ben</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr">On Tue, Sep 25, 2018 at 5:52 PM Philip Taylor <<a href="mailto:P.Taylor@rhul.ac.uk">P.Taylor@rhul.ac.uk</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<br>
<br>
<div class="m_9198784464591015368moz-cite-prefix">Benedict Holland wrote:<br>
<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">Also, make the default install location
C:\Users\<local user> if they are not running it as admin
and C:\Program Files (x86)\ if they are. It's the little things
like that which will solve a host of problems. If I tried to
install something as a user on C:\ it would just fail. <br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
Please do <i><b>not</b></i> make the default install location
C:\Program Files (x86)\; the vast majority of TeX Live is data, not
program. Microsoft recognise that C:\Program Files & C:\Program
Files (x86) should contain executables, not data, and provide
various alternative locations where such executables may store their
data; in TeX Live, programs and data are inextricably bound
together, and thus such separation is not possible — therefore,
C:\Program Files (x86) is a very poor and inappropriate location in
which to install such a mixed bundle.<br>
<br>
<div class="m_9198784464591015368moz-signature">-- <br>
<Signature><br>
Philip Taylor</div>
</div>
</blockquote></div>