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David, Joseph, Norbert, Reinhard — Thank you all for your
suggestions, all of which are helpful/noted. A brief reply to some
points that are perhaps of interest :<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">[NP] This if fmtutil/mktexfmt [is used] which rightly writes to TEXMFVAR (or
TEXMFSYSVAR if you use the -sys (or --sys) switch).</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
OK, I used neither of fmtutil/mktexfmt explicitly, but simply typed
:<br>
<ul>
<li>XeTeX ^&texip</li>
</ul>
<p>I have now tried using the "-sys" qualifier with XeTeX and see
that it is not recognised, and therefore "fmtutil" still tries to
create a format under c:/users/philip
taylor.fujitsu-pc/.texlive2018/<br>
<br>
</p>
<p>
<blockquote type="cite">D:\TeX\Live\2018>xetex -sys
^&texipexp<br>
xetex: unrecognized option `-sys'<br>
fmtutil [INFO]: writing formats under c:/users/philip
taylor.fujitsu-pc/.texlive<br>
2018/texmf-var/web2c<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
so it does not look (to me) as if on-the-fly format creation can
be instructed to save its results in a TEXMFSYS... tree.<br>
<br>
</p>
<p>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">[RK] I'm wondering whether a format file is required at all. Isn't it
possible to just load the TeX source of the format file instead of the
format file itself? You can state more than one TeX file on the
command line iff none but the last one contains \end, \endinput, or
\bye.</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
Perhaps, but I am still waiting for my copy of T-i-P Volume I to
arrive (I have only II 7 IV so far), so was just guessing based on
comments in "texipexp.tex".<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Does this work, Phil? I suppose that you don't intend to change the
contents of the book but maybe you want to change papersize to A4.
Format files only make sense if you use a huge macro package
frequently.</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
I was thinking of possibly adopting T-i-P as my default format,
since SvB appears to have already solved a large number of
problems which I have until now regularly addressed by hand. But
I would dearly <i>love</i> to be able to re-typeset the book :
the content is superb (outstanding, blows DS's "Advanced TeX" out
of the water) but SvB's use of "Shouting in his Section Titles"
(e.g., "Repeat Use of Table Entries") drives me to distraction. I
had thought until now that this was a nasty 21st-century/American
phenomenon which has (sadly) been adopted by some British writers,
but SvB wrote T-i-P in 1993, so the practice (which I abhor) must
have been reasonably common even at that time ...<br>
<br>
</p>
<p>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">[NP] put a file texmf.cnf into your TL root, and add there
TEXMFVAR = /wherever/you/want/it
and at the same time do this also for
TEXMFCONFIG = ...</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
Thank you, will do.<br>
<br>
</p>
<p>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">[RK] > Hmmm, "man" : no such command under Windows !
It's a pity. </pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
Well, I think I might reasonably reply that "it's a pity" that
Unix systems don't have a "HELP" command ! And how is it, in
these days of Political Correctness Gone Mad, that Unix systems
have not moved with the times and replaced "man" by "person" ?!<br>
</p>
<p>** Phil.<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
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