[OS X TeX] /usr/local/texprograms -> /Library/ActiveTeXPrograms

[Bruno Voisin]

Le 30 nov. 06 à 07:38, Gerben Wierda a écrit :

> On Nov 30, 2006, at 01:20 , Jérome Laurens wrote:
>
>> Le 29 nov. 06 à 23:59, Gerben Wierda a écrit :
>>
>>> So, I am planning to do this in terms of links:
>>>
>>> /Library/gwTeX -> ../../usr/local/gwTeX
>>> /Library/ActiveTeXPrograms -> ../../usr/local/gwTeX/bin/i386- 
>>> apple-darwin-current (on intel)
>>> /Library/ActiveTeXPrograms -> ../../usr/local/gwTeX/bin/powerpc- 
>>> apple-darwin-current (on ppc)
>>
>> According to my mail 	[OS X TeX] /Library/TeX (was local vs.  
>> global symlink) I would prefer
>>
>> /Library/TeX/distribution/gwTeX
>
> This is very deep down and that maks it more hidden for the user.
>
>> /Library/TeX/active-programs or maybe just /Library/TeX/programs
>
> I like the Active in the name as it says what the link means.

While I don't care that much about whether it's Programs or Active  
Programs in directory names, I do care about proper and consistent  
use of capitalization and punctuation in file names. Why forget about  
uppercase? Why introduce hyphens?

In short, /Library/TeX/ActivePrograms or /Library/TeX/Programs feel  
fine, as do (a bit less) /Library/ActiveTeXPrograms or /Library/ 
TeXPrograms, but please don't make them /Library/TeX/active-programs  
or /Library/TeX/programs. The aim is to make symlinks in as natural a  
language as possible to esoteric paths like /usr/local/gwTeX/bin/i386- 
apple-darwin-current. And natural language does include capital  
letters. If it were only to satisfy my taste, the symlinks would  
include spaces as well (as in /Library/TeX/Active Programs), but  
technical reasons seem to prohibit this for TeX. Oh well...

About the matter of /Library/TeX/ActiveTexmfLocal, I don't think that  
can work: given the various distros (teTeX-based i-Package, TeXLive- 
based i-Package, TeXLive DVD) contain different texmf trees, the user  
may want to complement each of them with a specific texmf.local or  
texmf-local tree. Hence you would need to create a separate symlink  
for each distro-specific texmf.local tree. And the level of  
complexity that would generate would end up breaking one of the  
purposes of this symlink business: create clear and natural pointers  
to the various parts a user might want to inspect inside the insanely  
complex file hierarchies of the various TeX distros.

Bruno Voisin------------------------- Info --------------------------
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