[tex-live] 20000425 image on Windows: disappointment!

[Fabrice Popineau]

* Janusz S Bie <jsbien@mimuw.edu.pl> writes:

> Th scenario which interests me is the use of TeXLive e.g. by a
> student on a departamental computer. So I log in as a regular user,
> put the CD and when the installer starts I choose "Run TeX off
> CD-Rom".

> Then I am forced to (try to) install WinShell, which I find
> unacceptable for several reasons, e.g. I may prefer to install NT
> Emacs (of course, a properly configured one).

Well, I should try to explain what I intended behind 'Run TeX off
cdrom'.

The goal was to be able to _demonstrate_ how simple it is to produce a
file with (La)TeX. I didn't intend it as a definitive installation of
TeX, but only as a way to show people that TeX can be easy. I wanted
to be as less intrusive as possible.

Now, that's  true that unless you are  a power user, you can't install
programs under 2000/XP (and you shouldn't try  to install them outside
c:\Program  Files  !).  So   this  is bound   to fail   on   protected
machines. Thanks for pointing it out.

What I can  do is to complete something  which I left commented in the
sources : let the user choose which editor he  want's to use. But this
will require that it is a TeX  oriented editor and that compilation be
run from  this editor. I'm quite  reluctant to make definitive changes
to the user's PATH outside of TeXSetup.exe but I will think about it
(in fact I would prefer a true minimal setup with TEXMFEXTRA pointing
to the cdrom).

Fabrice