[texworks] Texworks quit working (on windows)

[K. Frank]

Hi Alain!

On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 9:09 AM, Alain Delmotte <esperanto at swing.be> wrote:
> Hi!
>
> Le 28/09/2011 10:57, Lars Madsen a écrit :
>> ...
>> Have you ckecked that there are not any corrupt TeXworks
>> configuration files.
>
> If it is the Tex Live version of teXworks, go to
> c:\users\<you>\.texlive2010\texmf-config and suppress the "texworks" folder.
> So you suppress all the configuration files.
> Restart TeXworks from Tex Live, a new folder will be created.

I have a "texworks" folder, but it is empty:

   C:\Users\<me>\.texlive2011\texmf-config\texworks

I renamed it and restarted TeXworks.  The empty texworks folder was
recreated, and I have the same problem -- the TeXworks process exits
almost immediately.

> But I am using Tex Live 2010.

For what it's worth, I am using TeX Live 2011.

> There are 2 TeXworks.exe: one in c:\texlive\2010\win32\bin and one with
> companion folders in c:\texlive\2010\tlpkg\texworks.
> The files have not the same date but are the same version of TeXworks.

Yes, I also have two copies of texworks.exe.  The one that Akira identifies
as the wrapper program is much smaller, and is the one I run (from the
"TeX Live 2011 / TeXworks Editor" shortcut that the TeX Live installation
process added to my start menu).  Just for fun, I ran the "real" texworks
directly, and it exited almost immediately.

I do not know how to tell which texworks.exe is showing up briefly in
the windows task manager when I launch TeXworks.  Perhaps the
wrapper, perhaps the "real" texworks, perhaps both (but I never see
both at the same time).

> As far as I can remember, I installed TeXworks before Tex Live (I was using
> MikTeX before, but shifted because of the difficulties knowing if you are
> user or administrator).
> The TeXworks, not from Tex Live, was updated regularly and is now
> 0.5r.932(official)
> The configuration files for this TeXworks are in c:\users\Alain\texworks.
>
> I am under Windows 7(64) but Tex Live is win32.
>
> Hope this helps,

Well, it helps, in that you have TeXworks / TeX Live working under windows
(and 64-bit windows 7, in fact), but I still don't know what I should do.

Maybe it's a coincidence, but when I had TeXworks working, I had first
installed just TeXworks from a TeXworks installation package, and then
I installed TeX Live.  It sounds like you had first installed TeXworks via
MiKTeX, and then installed TeX Live.  (But it looks like you are running
TeXworks from your TeX Live installation, so maybe this is a red herring.)

>
> Alain
>
>>
>> Is it possible to start it from the commandline instead of
>> clicking on it (it might leave some messages before
>> disapearing)

To answer Lars's question, when I start texworks.exe from the command
line, it still exits almost immediately, but prints out nothing -- no messages
or error information.

I've tried starting both the wrapper and real texworks from the command
with the same result of nothing.

I am thinking of trying three things.  Both involve reinstalling TeX Live,
which makes experimentation somewhat difficult, because TeX Live, to
say the least, is not a fast installation process.

First, uninstall everything to make sure I get a clean install.

Then:

1)  Try to install TeX Live 2010, because that's what people seem to have
working on windows.  But I'm not really sure how to do this, because my
understanding is that the installer just goes and gets whatever is current on
the mirror it chooses.  So I would think that I would get the latest TeX Live
2011, and I don't know how to tell the installer to do otherwise.

2)  Install TeXworks first from the TeXworks installation package that I
downloaded.  Then install TeX Live.  The motivation is that this is what
I think I did originally when TeXworks worked for a while.  (But even if
this were to work, it still wouldn't explain why TeXworks quit working.)

3)  Install MiKTeX.  The hope would be that because MiKTeX is not the
same package as TeX Live, maybe it would work differently / better (and
because, as I understand it, some people do have it working on windows).

Any thoughts on which plan I should try first?  Which might be easiest,
and most likely to succeed?

Ideally, I would like to understand the root cause of the problem and fix
it, rather than just trying random variations on the reinstallation theme.
That TeX Live installation process, is, to say the least, not fast...


Again, thank you for all of your help, and for any further thoughts you
may have.


K. Frank