Am 03.03.2012 14:50, schrieb Vincent van Ravesteijn:
I didn't mention the bundle installer.
But this problem only occurs for new installations and thus only with the
bundle installer.
All this doesn't answer my question why we can't have the user decide what he
wants to do.
Because newbies won't know what they should decide and what the consequences are. If we for example
would have a dialog asking "Will you wait until all packages are installed?". 90% of the users will
click no because nobody wants to wait, no matter what it is. And it is also not clear for the user
what a "package" is and what is the consequence if some packages are missing. As an average user I
expect to get a fully functional program after installer was run and this is only possible with all
the packages.
I just
don't want to wait for half an hour to install LyX on a new pc, and I _never_
compile the user
guide,
New users will for sure sooner or later have a look at the UserGuide. If it is not compilable we
will be flooded with complains, trust me.
> and I have MikTeX pop up when I used a package which is not installed,
Only if you are in the Internet when this occurs. Not everybody is always online. If you are not
online you will get LateX errors. If a newbie sees such an error he will be lost and also some more
experienced users struggle from time to time over this as the lyx-users list shows.
> and there are soo many packages that I don't even use.
Sure, but how could we know which ones you need? Take for example the case that you have to write a
scientific article and your colleague recommended to use LyX. Then you expect to be able to start
writing after the installation of this LyX program. In this case you need quite a lot packages you
only need for scientific articles.
Especially in your installer, you change MikTeX's setting, which is just rude
and forces me to wait.
I explained several times in detail why this is the best solution and that I already had the
on-the-fly solution in the past without the success I expected. In today's thread "Re: Bug:
Bundle-installation needs Internet-connection" at the lyx-devel list we had exactly the case I
described: A newbie cannot know what a package is and how it works and what the consequences are if
some are missing.
In the official installer at least I can press cancel a lot of times if I have
configured MikTeX to
ask-on-the-fly.
(I don't know if pressing cancel for more than 50 times is more convenient than to make a 5 minute
coffee break.)
But once again, what you want and currently do requires a lot of background knowledge what LaTeX is,
how MiKTeX works and what a package is. In my experience newbies are even lost when they get the
question from MiKTeX that a package is missing and if they would allow to install it. When I gave
some courses at the University I got the following days many phone calls as the students didn't know
what to do in this case and what it means "a missing package". And these were students with some
Computer background.
My goal is to have an installer that just does everything for you, so no need to know the internals
of LaTeX. When I started with the Windows installer I said that my goal is to send my mother a link
where she can click on. In the installer she can click Next several times and afterwards can start
using LyX. She doesn't know any internals how programs and the PC works but she don't need to.
Everything will be in shape and she can directly start writing. And this works with my installer!
regards Uwe
