[OS X TeX] TeXShop Feature Request

[Victor Ivrii]

On Sun, May 30, 2010 at 3:15 AM, Oliver Buerschaper
<oliver.buerschaper at mpq.mpg.de> wrote:
>> Embedding the TexLive Manager, and enabling on the fly install of missing packages à la Miktex  makes sense (this may be achieved via TexShop engines);

One needs to remember that both MikTeX and TeXLive install/update ONLY
packages which were repacked for them, not ANY package from CTAN. The
latter task would be impossible as some authors demonstrate unhealthy
resourcefulness and creativity packing their packages. So, if we are
talking about TL packages the whole thing makes sense only in the case
the original installation was Basic rather than Full. Definitely tlmgr
should not be "embedded" as it sometimes updates self but *invoked*
(as TLU does)

Now about packages which are part of MikTeX but not TL. There at least
used to be non-automatic "mtmgr" (it was called different way) for
Unix and Unix-likes which I used with teTeX. However MikTeX cannot
coexist comfortably with TL. Even if we decide that if package is
unknown to tlmgr it must be downloaded and installed/updated by
"mkmgr" in some other tree (local or dedicated). There is at least one
problem: LaTeX package is not a TL or MikTeX package; there could be
many LaTeX packages in one TL packaging. Sometimes they are  bundles
like "hyperref" or "oberdiek" or "pgf" but sometimes there are just a
heap of some packages. TL team did a large job breaking the latter
into their elements and packing those separately. However I presume
that such heaps exist and they are different for MikTeX and TL.

Finally, the reason why some package is part of MikTeX but not TL is
the licensing issue: TL was always strict here as TL distributions
were also sold on CDs and to some companies which make the commercial
products, and attitude of MikTeX was more cavalierly. However there
are some packages/fonts with so messy licensing that even MikTeX is
not willing to deal with them. Finally as Karl Berry wrote recently

"FWIW, Christian told me recently that he would start trying to winnow
out the nonfree items in miktex using the same checks on the catalogue
license values as TL."

So basically packages with licensing issues will disappear from MikTeX
and any package without these issues and not  part of TL could become
a part of it (just place the request in texlive mailing list)

Christian = Schenk, MikTeX maintainer
"mkmgr" = MiKTeX Tools 2


Victor


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Victor Ivrii, Professor, Department of Mathematics, University of Toronto
http://www.math.toronto.edu/ivrii