----- Original Message -----
From: "Angus Leeming" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <lyx-users@lists.lyx.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 4:54 AM
Subject: Re: There's Something About Textclass.lst [WinXP, installing into]
Stephen Harris wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From: "Enrico Forestieri"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc:
<lyx-users@lists.lyx.org> Sent: Monday,
December 12, 2005 5:17 PM Subject: Re: There's Something About
Textclass.lst [WinXP, installing into]
because I think it is very likely that if you examine your 1.3.7pre5
configure file you'll see that the Path preview section is inflated
by a ~two hundred characters.
Yes, I noticed it. Anyway, I always edit the configure script after
installation to trim \path_prefix because I already have everything
needed in my path.
You mean your Windows path? I keep learning. I knew that
LyX would work with Path prefix alone, without any Lyx helper
programs in the Windows path, but I didn't know that one could
trim the path_prefix because it was already handled in the
Windows path.
Formally, that's the PATH environment variable. To be honest, I don't
think
that I check the contents of this variable when generating the contents of
\path_prefix. Clearly I should have ;-)
On my computer, the contents of \path_prefix are a subset of the
Windows PATH environment variable because I've manually added
them. Checking the contents of PATH and comparing it to LyX's
\path_prefix to determine accuracy seems awfully smart, like AI.
Within LyX we prepend the contents of \path_prefix to the global PATH,
creating an augmented PATH for this process and all of its children
(spawned processes).
By global PATH, do you mean Windows PATH is global and
\path_prefix is local? Or that there is a LyX global path variable?
This is where I became confused.
Enrico said he edited the configuration script after installation, which
is the first time as a user, I see it. At this point you can trim it down by
editing, so that it outputs a proper \path_prefix. Or you can use the old
1.3.6 configure script which contains the correct number of entries.
Enrico: Yes, I noticed it. Anyway, I always edit the configure script after
installation to trim \path_prefix because I already have everything
needed in my path.
SH: Isn't he referring to his Windows PATH environment variable?
What other path could he be referring to, that he can put in the path?
It doesn't help to edit the configure script after installation unless one
intends to run it in order to manage the content of \path_prefix?
If you can trim some items of the \path_prefix content because
"everything needed" is already in the Windows PATH, why can't
you trim all the items in \path_prefix if you have all of the contents
of \path_prefix already included in your Windows PATH variable?
I questioned his statement because I thought LyX relied on its own
\path_prefix and was independent of the Windows PATH for operation
of LyX function, not that LyX is independent of an OS, or a key part of it.
What does "... I already have everything needed in my path" mean?
Why not simply get an archive (zip, tar, whatever) of the 1.3.7pre5 LyX
directory and unpack it over a 1.3.6 installation? Thereafter, one could
simply edit the configure script to adjust \path_prefix, run "sh
configure"
and be done.
Well, maybe that would work, I wonder what Angus thinks? Since
I am only a computer technician rather than a developer, I can't
fully grasp all the ramifications of this approach; I always test,
test...
<shrug>
That's essentially what the Installer does. There's no magic to it.
</shrug>
So, yes, it'll work.
What I propose to do is to add some text to the final screen of the
Installer:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
We know that sometimes this Installer fails to run the command
sh configure
from the
C:/Program Files/LyX/Resources/lyx
(I'll tune this automatically ;-)
directory. As a result various data files used by LyX are not generated
and
lyx.exe will fail to run successfully.
If you find that the files lyxrc.defaults and textclass.lst in the above
directory do not exist or have zero size, then you should open up an MSYS
or CMD terminal and run the above command from the above directory.
One final note: you'll find a '\path_prefix' entry in lyxrc.defaults. It's
contents are prepended to the PATH environment variable visible to lyx.exe
and it's used to find the various binaries used by LyX (sh.exe,
gswinc.exe, python.exe, etc). It's been reported that sometimes the
Installer generates multiple redundant instances of individual entries in
'\path_prefix'. Feel free to edit manually.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Feel free to act as editor ;-)
--
Angus
This looks good. By tune automatically, do you mean if the user has
exercised the option to choose an alternate installation directory?
Though if the user knows enough to change the default, then he likely
knows enough to adapt the "sh configure" procedure to the alternate dir.
I reported awhile back that I couldn't install without getting a
textclass.lst
error to C:\LyX, starting with LyX137pre2 I think. That is, the default to
...\program files, installed without a problem, but not if you changed the
default installation directory (to C:\Lyx). Unfortunately, I did not test to
see if "sh.exe configure" would have corrected this problem. It was like
an inverse path with spaces problem. I don't still have the older install
files.
I'm not sure I tested 137pre3. But starting with 137pre4, I couldn't
install without a problem to either the default C:\program files\lyx or
C:\lyx. But, I have tested an installation to C:\Lyx, now, and then ran
sh.exe configure from C:\lyx\resources\lyx and it worked like a charm.
Alas, the inexplicable vagaries or provident provenance.
The best laid plans of mice and men...,
Stephen
