[tex-live] Re: context / directory structure

[Thomas Esser]

> i have been thinking about this last night; the boundary condition that 
> files are unique is a dangerous one (where did it come from?); if users 

The argument that you give applies to any search path, so it can be
repeated for texmf/fonts/map/pdftex and you are nowhere else.

If we can set up TeX Live to deliver non-overlapping names for the
whole fonts/map// tree, then I see no reason to use a more complicated
search path.

I think that you have even given a good argument for this: sometimes users
want to change a global file by putting a new one into the local tree. Assume
that the file to change is
  TEXMFDIST: texmf/map/pdftex/foopkg/foo.map
and the user puts up
  TEXMFLOCAL: texmf/map/local/foo.map
and the search path is set up as
  TEXMF={$TEXMFLOCAL,$TEXMFDIST,...}
  TEXFONTMAPS=$TEXMF/fonts/map/{pdftex,}/

Guess what he'll get? ...
...
...
Answer: the file from the dist tree.

Really, if we can provide a clean tree, we should also provide simple
search paths. Users really get confused by complicated search paths.

Thomas