[texworks] integrating TeX Works into TeX Live

[Jonathan Kew]

On 15 Mar 2009, at 21:34, Karl Berry wrote:

>    it would also be possible to go the other way round and
>    have TeXworks auto-detect TL.
>
> I'm sorry for speaking in generalities, but it's all I have to offer.
> What I think is important is:
>
> 1) someone installing TeX Live in the standard way also gets TeXworks.
>   This is clearly for the TL side, and we will take care of it, one  
> way
>   or another.
>
> 2) the resulting TeXworks configuration is reasonable and does not  
> need
>   the user to do anything to start using TeX(works).
>
> 3) if the user wants to override something, (1) they can do so without
>   having to copy other settings, and (2) their personal configuration
>   will survive both TW and TL updates.
>
> This is why Norbert and I started down the path of having "cascading"
> configuration files.  But it's the result that's important, not the
> implementation.
>
> Can anyone who knows more about TW advise about #2

At this point, the tricky part of this would be ensuring TW knows  
where to find the TL binaries. It has some defaults that it will check  
at startup, which can obviously include the default TL paths, but that  
may not be good enough given that TL can be installed in novel places.  
So the installer needs a way to tell TW what it's done -- although the  
TL binaries may not be in the default $PATH at all.

> and #3?

Should be fine under the current model, where the TW config is handled  
similarly to most GUI applications.

>
> Jonathan, are you there :)?

Yes, and listening. :)

JK