[tex-live] TeXLive for Windows, sigh!

[Reinhard Kotucha]

>>>>> "Jonathan" == Jonathan Kew <jonathan_kew at sil.org> writes:

  > On 4 Mar 2007, at 1:02 am, Reinhard Kotucha wrote:
  >>  "TeXLive for Windows" has:
  >> 
  >> texlive2005 
  >> texlive2005/texmf-local
  >> texlive2007
  >> texlive2007/texmf-local

  > I'm puzzled by this. I have never installed TL2005/Windows, but I
  > did recently install TL2007 on a Windows machine to test some
  > things. The (default) installation gave me c:\texmf-local (an
  > empty "skeleton" directory structure) at the root, *not* within
  > the texlive2007 directory. Admittedly, I installed from the "inst"
  > CD rather than the "live" DVD, and this was a few days before the
  > release was actually declared final, but I'd be very surprised if
  > this setup changed in those last couple of days.

I just looked into texmf.cnf-4WIN and it seems that it had been
changed *before* you installed it.  I did not burn a CD yet
to install TL at work, hence at the moment I can only look into
texmf.cnf-4WIN.  Apparently users will not remove texmf-local
accidentally id they remove texlive2007 (but they bave to be careful
when they remove texlive2005). 

I'm wondering about this change because this is probably not exactly
what Staszek intended.  He does not want to have TL related
directories outside the TL tree.  The problem is that there is a
directory texlive2007 and not texlive/2007 as on UNIX.

I recommend the UNIX directory structure because it's better to have
all TeX related files in one directory.  It's easier then to move
texlive to another partition or a new disk.  It's also more correct
because texmf-local depends on $SELFAUTOPARENT.

As far as I remember Staszek had been concerned about filesystem
efficiency but I doubt that it makes a big difference, especially
because Pawel does not want to support ancient versions of Windows
anyway.

Regards,
  Reinhard 

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