[OS X TeX] R, paradigm to bring into the LaTeX world?

[Frank STENGEL]

Le 22 oct. 06 à 16:24, Simon Spiegel a écrit :


>
> - Someone has to do it.

Something of the sort already exists within TCOBrowser (look at the  
miktex preference tab)
> - AFAIK MikTeX uses its own distribution and doesn't take its  
> packages directly from CTAN or TL. This means that MikTeX is often  
> slower in adapting updates.

Indeed. However, the ease of use given by (the gui version of) mpm  
(the MikTeX package manager, also available in beta cli form for OSX  
--- very usable) largely offsets the fact that  miktex lags behind CTAN.

> - Since LaTeX is used by the geekier computer users, this is a  
> problem. Some people (like me) always want to be up to date, others  
> (like Rowland) want to configure the last bit of their systems and  
> so. Of course, this is no reason, not to do this, but it may  
> explain, why there isn't too much effort here.

Yes, but I know a few colleagues working on the 'doze side who only  
went to TeX because of MikTeX's ease of use.  Without its package  
manager, MikTeX is just another distribution...

>
> IMO, the best (= most user friendly) solution would be a MikTeX- 
> like package manager, integrated into i-installer which directly  
> draws its packages from CTAN. This is probably not doable  
> currently, since CTAN knows nothing about the dependencies of its  
> packages, but IMO it's certainly something desirable. Of course, we  
> always end up with point 1: Someone actually has to do it.


Why not expand TCOBrowser to include mpm or a way to communicate with  
it ? Most of the work has already been done. What is left is the  
actual communication bit. I.e. showing whether a package has been  
installed and giving the option to upgrade/install it. One tricky bit  
would be to initialize the system to know which packages have been  
installed by i-installer/mactex in what version...

-- 
Frank STENGEL (fstengel<at>mac.com)

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