[texworks] Ubuntu packages

[Stefan Löffler]

Hi,

On 2009-06-23 00:05, Karl Berry wrote:
>     I've created a Launchpad team named "TeXworks" 
>
> Isn't there some way we can do this in a distro-agnostic way?
>   

Unfortunately, I don't think so. As it is now, we already have
workarounds in place for hardy (which comes with a hunspell version
which doesn't support ignoring words). And this is likely to get worse.
But as already mentioned in this thread, "normal" users will probably
appreciate it to be able to install software in the way that's typical
for their system. On Windows, this means unzipping a file and/or running
an installer, on Ubuntu (and most other Linux distros AFAIK) this means
running the package manager. That's all I want to provide (Windows
binaries are currently available outside of Google on Alain's page, btw).

> Aside from philosophical problems with launchpad (of which I have many :),
> it seems like it would be much more effective to distribute binaries and
> collect build information for *all* systems on a TeXworks page.
>   

I chose launchpad because it is simple, and because it provides a
pbuilder environment which I don't want to have to set up on my local
machine. So essentially I just upload the code and some config files and
launchpad does the rest for me.
I don't object to collecting binaries on the TW page, but during the
current development process this just doesn't happen. There have never
been Linux binaries on the TW page, and admittedly it is probably not
possible to provide binaries for all of the distros out there. All I'm
trying is to give people using Ubuntu the chance of getting the latest
TW builds without them having to build it (and without me having to set
up complicated chroot environments ;)). But if you have a better idea
how to do this I'm all ears ;).

> For example, many of the TeX Live builders are perfectly willing to
> build TW binaries; some already have.  But right now there is no
> good mechanism for making them available, as far as I know.
>   

Are they building the binaries on a daily/weekly basis? I imagine there
will be new builds with each new TL release (other than security updates
etc.). Since the development of TW is progressing swiftly (at times, at
least ;)) and there's no official release, I imagine that people would
want latest builds.
BTW: has it been decided _if_ TL will include TW, anyway?

> Fragmenting the information onto personal home pages, distro-specific
> pages, etc., just seems wrong to me.  By all means, let's have mention
> of TW in all such places, but it should just point back to a central TW
> location.
>   

There's really not much information on the Launchpad page. It's not as
if it were a fork or anything. It's just a convenient web space to
assist in distributing packages in the form of a package archive which
can be used directly within Ubuntu (something you'll never achieve with
Google's download section, btw).

-Stefan

PS: I have to apologize to Rohan who also put up TW packages on his
launchpad account which haven't been updated in a while, though. I
didn't omit you in my original message intentionally, I just overlooked
your post.