As far as I am concerned, there are no more changes pending before the release: manual installation is as it should be for the release, the docs are up to date pretty well. Here is stuff that needs to be finished for the release:
a) document Windows startup using tex-mik.el or fptex.el, b) make the auctex.spec file (looks like this is going to be my job), c) create a proposal for package providers based on that (looks like my job as well. At least it does not make sense to tackle b and c independently), d) write up RELEASE and changes.texi. e) Sigh. Almost forgot that. Change the specials in preview/latex/preview.dtx to cooperate with old versions of dvipng, and fix the versioning scheme. Again my job, I fear. f) better document requirements, supported platforms, and software to download, in particular on the web page. I am sick of hearing the incessant "But what use is that to Windows users?" whining. We really need to whack people with the information that all major desktop operating systems are supported by now, and tell what one needs to download on order to get from ground zero to a working TeX/LaTeX/Emacs/AUCTeX/preview-latex/RefTeX installation depending on your operating system. Historically, AUCTeX was a solution to use when you were hooked on LaTeX and Emacs, and it is documented with that assumption in mind. And of course, the developers _are_ hooked on LaTeX and Emacs to a good degree. We need to get this out of our heads. AUCTeX's web site (and the docs) should become a one-stop location for all your needs once you decided to try out LaTeX. At the moment, it would probably be a bit overboard to actually document how to install an operating system. But in the long run, perhaps as a separate project, I'd like to offer something like an Ubuntu live DVD (which is ridiculously easy to create and has quite good hardware detection) with the newest AUCTeX and Emacs and TeXlive versions set up and ready to run. This will provide a completely standardized environment as a reference point people can try out in order to get hooked, and which one can use as the base of writing a book about document creation. Anyway, I digress. First point is to make a good list about the requirements and what to download. I think that the to-be-released install.texi+wininstall.texi from AUCTeX are not in the worst state right now, but work on that is welcome. It should also be apparent that the above list of points before the release does not mention any further code improvements. And that means that people should _test_, _test_, _test_ the current code and report back any problems or inconsistencies _now_. For the various operating systems, for the various versions of Emacs and XEmacs we support. As you can see from the above list, I already have quite a bit to do myself. So jump in with the rest, and in particular: everything but the finished RPM files for the few fixed supported platforms are targets for testing. -- David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum _______________________________________________ auctex-devel mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/auctex-devel
