[texworks] ini path

[Jonathan Kew]

On 22 Mar 2009, at 09:13, Alain Delmotte wrote:

> Hi!
>
> perhaps I did not understand well!! (Most probably)
> "texworks-setup.ini" points to the TeXworks folder in which, in TUG,  
> is the "texworks.ini" file, and it should be in that file that we  
> define "defaultbinpaths".
> This allows to force using texworks.ini!
> Am I correct now?

No, that doesn't sound right. texworks-setup.ini, which is used if  
(and only if) it is found alongside the executable, supports three keys:

   inipath
       path to store the main preferences file, in .ini format;
       if not specified, prefs are stored in a platform-dependent  
format and location

   libpath
       path to the user-modifiable texworks configuration resources;
       if not specified, the default location is a "TeXworks" or  
".TeXworks" folder
       in the user's home directory (exact details platform-dependent)

   defaultbinpaths
       initial default paths for tool binaries;
       if not specified, compiled-in defaults will be used;
       in any case, non-existent paths will be discarded, and paths  
set in Preferences
       will override the defaults

So if you want to force the use of a texworks.ini file for the  
preferences, you should set "inipath" in texworks-setup.ini. (In this  
case, you could also provide a preconfigured texworks.ini itself, in  
the specified location; this could contain bin paths, among other  
things.)

I think the important point about "defaultbinpaths", though, is that  
it can set the default binary paths even if you're not providing a  
preconfigured texworks.ini (e.g., on a multi-user system, where each  
user should have separately-stored preferences so you can't set  
inipath to a single, shared location).

Of course, most users should never have to worry about this. Either  
they install TeXworks separately from a TeX distribution, in which  
case they may have to configure paths as a one-time setup operation if  
the compiled-in defaults don't work for their system; or they get it  
as part of a larger distribution, in which case the packager should  
provide a texworks-setup.ini file with appropriate defaultbinpaths for  
the distro, so that everything works right away.

Hope that makes sense....

JK