[tex-live] Updating packages over the internet a la MiKTeX

[Thomas Esser]

> TeX Live crew. MiKTeX's repository is taken from TeX Live. MiKTeX's 
> repository then is reinserted in another branch of CTAN (win32).

This point is wrong. MikTeX's packages are updated independendly from
TL. One example is memoir. TL's master tree does not yet have the current
version (last updated on CTAN: 2004/05/25).

MikTeX's package (systems/win32/miktex/tm/packages/memoir.cab from
2004/06/01) has the current version (I just have looked at the cab file
with cabextract).

So, in fact, we have people working on "Total MikTeX", "TeX Live" and
teTeX, all taking files from CTAN and putting the result back to CTAN.
Total MikTeX and TeX Live are TPM based, teTeX is not (yet).

Using a single source of packages for all distributions would mean
  - to agree on a common namespace
  - to agree on a common format for the packages (zip / cab / whatever)
  - to agree on line ends (if the package forma  does not support
    conversion on extraction)
  - and much much more...

Thomas