On 1/8/07, Mojca Miklavec <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 1/6/07, Alexander Hansen wrote: > > On 1/6/07, kp.gores wrote: > > > hi, > > > > > > i switched from tetex (installed by gerben wierdas great i-installer) > > > to texlive. unfortunately fink only supports a system-tetex, but not > > > a "system-texlive". any help on getting fink to recognize texlive? > > > regards > > > kp > > > > > > > Current discussion has been in the direction of eliminating support > > for non-Fink TeX distros altogether. > > Hello, > > sorry for disturbing again. I really don't know that much about Fink > itself (I just know that I'm very thankful for it since it really > makes life much easier), but I use TeX (ConTeXt) a lot. > > At the time when the first message arrived I didn't know yet that > Gerben announced end of his support (I didn't understand the hint > until a few days later). > > > Here are some of my thoughts: > > - I have no idea for how long Gerben's distribution is still going to > be useful, but I'll keep using it unless/until there will be a better > alternative > > - It might be that Gerben's distribution becomes really obsolete one > day, so a good and up-to-date alternative, such as > texlive/miktex-based TeX in fink might be needed anyway and would be > really welcome. > > - If you intend to drop support for non-fink distributions of TeX,
I should have said "the current maintainer of system-tetex is thinking about discontinuing support" > please try to create a texlive-based alternative in fink first. The > tetex-based one is so old that it's almost useless to me. (I'm using > ConTeXt and I *really* need additions from May/August 2006 for > example. The same is true for most ConTeXt users.) Also, I'm not sure > if the following page is still relevant: > > http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=xetex_fink > but I really don't want to follow it's instructions since XeTeX should > work out-of-the-box already. Any of our users are free to contribute such things. We have a xetex in the tracker, but it didn't build on a case-sensitive file system, and the submitter was waiting for upstream to fix it. > > - I have a feeling that some packages simply require too much when > they ask for TeX development files. I successfully compiled gnuplot on > windows/linux/mac, it only failed with fink since it wanted to have > some TeX developer files for some reason that I don't really > understand. When I compiled manually, everything went OK and kpathsea > developer files were not needed (perhaps I had worse functionality > because of that, I don't know, but I never really missed anything). On > the other hand, the new version of gnuplot would need pangocairo which > fink doesn't support and which is much more serious drawback than not > having a kpathsea header file installed. > I'll point out that if you use a _Fink_ tetex, then gnuplot works fine. Pangocairo is in the works right now. > I have a feeling that the main reason why most packages require TeX is > simply because it's used to generate documentation (I might be wrong > though) and one doesn't need TeX developer files for that. Any TeX > installation (as long as "pdflatex" works) should do in that case. > > - In really short term, it would really help if texlive-based Gerben's > distribution could be supported as well. > Once again, anybody is free to maintain a package to do so. > - I don't understand (but I admit that I'm speculating a bit since I > don't know what's behind) why fink wants to have some TeX files at > hardcoded locations. TeX has kpathsea which was created for exactly > that reason - to be able to have files placed at "arbitrary" > locations. Would it be possible to make any use of that? > No. FInk's build process requires files to be in one and only one location. Otherwise binaries that are built on one system can fail on another. > - If someone decides to create a texlive-based package, I'm > volunteering to prepare and maintain a package for ConTeXt (if someone > could offer me some help at the very beginning), which is usually > updated once or twice per week. That'd be great. Gerben's i-Installer (as well as > MikTeX, W32TeX and Debian) takes care of that. > > I'm also ready to help on some other issues regarding texlive, but I'm > not experienced enough to take it over. > > The situation has just been improved considerably in Debian, MikTeX's > developer is working on incorporating new versions of pdfTeX, > metapost, XeTeX, ... Also note that luaTeX (pdfTeX's successor) is on > its way and will probably be available in the middle of 2007. Having a > good & recent TeX distribution on Mac is and will be needed and > welcome. > > As long as "eliminating support for non-Fink TeX distros altogether" > doesn't mean "users have to use that obsolete tetex distribution from > January 2005", I support that. But it has to be done "properly" and in > such a way that users will profit from that. I really don't want such > a thing as "fink's ancient TeX messing up with some new & usable TeX". > > Thanks, > Mojca > > (I'm really sorry for posting to a different list that the one where > message originated; I didn't want to cross-post and I thought that > fink-users was more appropriate than fink-beginners.) > Summing up: I should have said that the idea of discontinuing system-tetex wasn't from the whole project, but mentioned by the maintainer. If somebody wants to create one or more packages to try to integrate arbitrary TeX distributions with Fink, they're welcome to try. Making Fink packages of them would probably be better (and easier). -- Alexander K. Hansen (akh) Fink Documenter (still) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ Fink-users mailing list Fink-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fink-users
