[tex-live] Update all installed failed

[George N. White III]

On Sat, Nov 13, 2010 at 11:39 AM, Philip Taylor (Webmaster, Ret'd)
<P.Taylor at rhul.ac.uk> wrote:

> Norbert Preining wrote:
>
>>> Could this be related to the fact that I have had TeXworks
>>> open throughout much of this dialogue ?
>>
>> Argggg  /§&$/$§?!§/§&%$&%&§%$
>>
>> You LOVE to shoot yourself into the knee????
>>
>> Do you know how much time I have? Wasting it is not the best move!

The problem with writing something that becomes widely used is that you
see lots of problem reports.  Even if your software is bug free users will find
ways to break stuff.  The only answer is for other users to take on more of the
support tasks.

> But to be fair, most analogous utilities detected that an application
> that needs to be updated is currently running, warns the user, and
> either asks the user to shut down the offending application or offers
> to do so on behalf of the user.  TLMGR does neither ...

Many Windows installers still recommend closing all other applications.
The "application that needs to be updated is currently running" only
applies when the component being updated is tied to the application
so it is easy to detect the conflict.

TLMGR is cross-platform and open-ended.   Updating a currently running
application is common practice on other platforms.    With TeX Live it
would be difficult to know in advance which applications might be using
the files, so maybe the best that could be done is to remind windows users
to "close all other applications".

-- 
George N. White III <aa056 at chebucto.ns.ca>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia