On 06/20/2018 09:12 AM, Paul A. Rubin wrote: > On 06/19/2018 10:47 AM, Pavel Sanda wrote: >> >> Since we are doing changes in the installation workflow on Windows we >> should >> consider to advocate TeX Live instead of MiKTeX on official LyX web page >> and I have in mind two reasons: >> >> 1. increased document interoperability between architectures because >> both >> Linux and Mac use preferably TeX Live (MacTeX is redistribution of >> TeX Live if I read their pages right, CMIIW). >> >> 2. the instalation time of first install of MiKTeX (including triggered >> online updates via configure) is *horrific*. As I wrote in some >> earlier >> email, it took >1 hour to get LyX+MiKTeX working on clean Win >> machine >> mainly because of MiKTeX package handling (and our reconfigure:). >> Net TeXLive installer might be better in this regard. (?) >> >> >> Before I will do my own experiments with Win TL 18, any windows users >> around to comment on TeX Live advantages/drawbacks on windows, esp. >> to points 1./2. >> > It's been quite a while since I switched from Windows to Linux, so my > experience with MiKTeX may be dated. When I first started using LyX > (on Windows), I'm not sure TeXLive had a Windows installer. At any > rate, I used MiKTeX for years and was very pleased with it. > Personally, I prefer the MiKTeX approach of installing and updating > individual packages to the TeXLive bundle approach, where I have to > figure out which bundle contains the one package I need, then install > the entire bundle. I've tried tlmgr for individual packages with some > success, but even that seems rougher to me than MiKTeX's installer. > > Besides the disk footprint for TeXLive bundles, another consideration > is bandwidth. If a Windows user has a slow connection, or is using a > tethered phone (with a limited data plan), burning as little bandwidth > as possible to get the needed packages can be a consideration.
Individual package bundles tend to be very small. They're text files, after all, and so can be compressed a lot. > Overall, I favor keeping the LyX installer distribution-agnostic. We > can (and probably should) put links to TeXLive, MiKTeX and any other > relevant distributions. The existing installer is not agnostic. It favors MiKTeX in several ways. > As to the points above, for #1, LaTeX packages should behave the same > on all platforms (unless the dreaded Windows line endings somehow muck > things up), so I'm not sure why it would make a difference if I used > MiKTeX and my coauthor used TeXLive. For #2, I did not consider MiKTeX > installation times bad back when I was using it. I would typically > install just the base installer, then install individual packages when > they first became needed. It's the bundle installer that does things differently. Assuming the user sets to install packages on the fly, it installs every package that LyX could possibly need. (Actually, that will happen whether MiKTeX was installed with LyX or not.) Riki
