[tex-live] TEXINPUTS on windows

Ulrike Fischer news3 at nililand.de
Sun Nov 7 12:24:44 CET 2010


Am Sat, 06 Nov 2010 22:07:33 +0100 schrieb Andreas Hirsch:


> again: we talk about unexperienced TeX users? What they have to add?

Well the last year I talk quite a lot of rather unexperienced TeX
user through the task to add biblatex to their miktex system (when
no miktex and texlive package existed). 

> Your example seems very special to me:

It's a real example. It was just discussed in the german group.
Someone wanted to try the microtype beta.  


> wheres's the problem to use localtexmf?

It takes more time to install large packages when you have to copy
files and it's more error-prone. It's also more difficult to clean
up if all your local packages are in the same texmf-tree. Assume
that you have installed pgf 2.0 in your localtexmf and now 2.1 is
official and can be installed with tlgmr. How do you remove the 2.0?
How do tell the unexperienced TeX-user to uninstall it? 

I install such large packages simply in a texmf-tree "texmf-pgf20",
mount this tree and when I no longer need it, unmount. I don't need
to delete anything. If for a reason I need suddendly pgf 2.0 back I
can simply mount its tree again.

Also for me it is easy to transport local packages to another
miktex: I simply copy the trees to a stick and then mount the trees
as a whole. 

And the use of more than one localtexmf allows me to keep my real
"local" packages, my own packages apart. 

-- 
Ulrike Fischer 



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