[OS X TeX] Finally we are grown up

[Claus Gerhardt]

Let me also emphasize that the Applescript applications that are  
offered in the install recipe are absolutely safe, they won't do any  
harm and certainly no irreparable damage, since I am not aware of any  
important folder in /usr/local that is called texprograms.

One application, rename-file.app, changes the name of /usr/local/ 
TeXLive in /usr/local/gwTeXLive, if Gerben's installation is present.  
But the user is informed beforehand what the application will do, and  
if he wants to change that name it will be changed. Revoking this  
change would require some additional action but I cannot image why  
anybody would want to do it:-).

Claus


On Nov 20, 2006, at 15:40, Claus Gerhardt wrote:

> I am not offering an installer but install instructions combined  
> with some Applescripts (now applications), that should allow the  
> average user to install TeXLive (TUG) without any troubles.
>
> It is really interesting that the critiques of my approach come  
> from people who obviously never tried to follow my instructions.
>
> Claus
>
>
> On Nov 20, 2006, at 15:21, Fernando Pereira wrote:
>
>>
>> On Nov 20, 2006, at 3:13 AM, Louis Talman wrote:
>>
>>> I think that it's very interesting that Claus didn't get it right  
>>> on the first try.  (Nor is this a criticism of Claus; we all make  
>>> mistakes like the ones he made.)
>>
>> It is however evidence for the value of a well-designed installer  
>> system like i-Installer (thanks again, Gerben!). Software  
>> installation is hard, because it has to accommodate the almost  
>> infinite variability of local setups. A good installer can check  
>> for the invariants it expects before doing anything irreversible.  
>> A set of natural language instructions does that rarely, if ever.  
>> What makes natural language easier and more concise for people --  
>> vagueness, reliance on a shared background -- is exactly what  
>> makes it inappropriate as a medium for communicating configuration  
>> instructions.
>>
>> -- F
>>
>>
>>
>
>

------------------------- Info --------------------------
Mac-TeX Website: http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/
          & FAQ: http://latex.yauh.de/faq/
TeX FAQ: http://www.tex.ac.uk/faq
List Archive: http://tug.org/pipermail/macostex-archives/