[texworks] Texworks quit working (on windows)

[K. Frank]

Hi Paul!

Thanks for your suggestions.

On Sat, Oct 1, 2011 at 6:42 PM, Paul A Norman <paul.a.norman at gmail.com> wrote:
> HI,
>
> If you have not already fully tried this set of steps here (and I
> could not tell from the transcript here) please try building on
> Jonathan and Stefan's and others' points, but for diagnostic reasons
> to firmly rule one set of possible circumstances out, do something
> that should not now  be at all necessary otherwise.
>
> But as there is still at least one possible external dll known to be
> being looked for (Python), for diagnostic purposes, start a cmd shell
> (dos prompt) type path, there you will see your whole combined local
> user and system set path.

This is interesting.  Between when TeXworks worked for me and when
it stopped working I did install an application that uses python and
came bundled with some python dll's.

However, this "installation" only involved unzipping an archive, did not
add anything to my path, and was carried out on a removable drive that
is not currently connected to the computer in question.

So the python connection is most likely a red herring.

> As once initialised, a cmd shell effectively maintains its own path
> statement in isolation, write what you would consider to be the most
> minimal path statement necessary under your version of windows. For
> example on my system I would type:
>
> set path = c:\windows;c:\windows\system32

Okay, I did this.

> Remember you are only setting the path for the current cmd shell, not
> the whole system. If you are not sure about that, be logged in as
> something less than an administrator.
>
> Now try from that dos shell (with the adjusted path statement) try to
> start the portable version of TeXworks that you installed separate
> from TeXlive.

I cd'ed into the (non-Tex Live) directory that contains TeXworks.exe,
and tried to run "TeXworks.exe".  No go.

> Check first, for these unusual circumstances, that your
> TW_conf directory is perhaps a full path, with a drive letter, in your
> TeXworks texworks-setup.ini that you adjusted. (Otherwise you can use
> a path starting \ on windows for TeXworks portable normally).

The contents of my texworks-setup.ini file is:

   inipath=C:/Users/<me>/TW_conf/
   libpath=C:/Users/<me>/TW_conf/

Note, per the TeXworks manual, I use forward slashes ('/'), rather than
backslashes ('\').  The directory does exist, it is empty, and it remains
empty after attempting to launch TeXworks.

> If TeXworks does now start, that would suggest (after all that you
> have tried) in the first instance that after all some dll is probably
> the issue for some reason, and a same named older python library is
> possibly the most likely candidate.

(Well, TeXworks didn't start.)

> It would be somewhere in that initial  path statement that you changed
> away from, and may be from something else you installed or tried out
> in-between TeXworks working, and then not working, and the main
> programme may not even still be installed.
>
> If that does not help, we will have to look at more subtle things, and
> perhaps even consider other unwated possibilities.

Yes, if you have other possible causes in mind, please let me know.

> paul
>

> P.S I should have added, that for completeness if TexWorks still does
> not start check the directories that you left in the minimal path
> statements for the python dll

There is no python dll in my minimal path:

   dir %PATH% | find /I "pyth"

returns nothing.

> or any other historically used TeXworks dll.

Aye, there's the rub.  I don't know what the other "historically used
TeXworks dll[s]" are.  If there are other likely candidate dll's, I could
certainly look for them.

I appreciate your help.  Any further suggestions would be very welcome.

Thanks.


K. Frank


>
> On 2 October 2011 03:34, K. Frank <kfrank29.c at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hello All!
>>
>> Wow!  Nothing works.
>>
>> I have tried a lot of the suggestions given above.  (The only thing
>> I haven't tried is reinstalling TeX Live again from scratch, because
>> doing so is Not Fast (TM).)
>> ...