Bug#73665: No documentation for babel package

["C.M. Connelly" <c@eskimo.com>]

"VW" == Victor Wagner <vitus@ice.ru> writes:


   VW> Package: tetex-doc 
   VW> Version: 1.0-10

   VW> texdoc babel in potato says no documentation for babel
   VW> found locate reports that no babel.dvi or babel.dvi.gz
   VW> exists.

That's because texdoc is pretty dumb.  All it does is take the
name of the package you provide, append several different
suffixes, and then try to find the file using kpsewhich with the
``--format='TeX system documentation''' flag.  So for ``babel'',
texdoc looks for

   babel.dvi.gz
   babel.pdf.gz
   babel.ps.gz
   babel.txt.gz
   babel.dvi
   babel.pdf
   babel.ps
   babel.txt
   babel.html
   babel

On my system, it finds babel.html, which is the TeX Catalogue page
that allows you to download the babel package.  Unfortunately, the
real documentation for Babel is in a file called user.dvi.gz in
/usr/share/doc/texmf/generic/babel/.

texdoctk, which is available in woody, provides a Tk application
that gives you eighteen categories to choose from, and lists
documents.  It uses a database to associate the meaningful names
it presents (such as the titles of the documents) with the
nonmeaningful file names of the documents.  Thus the Babel
documentation can be found by clicking on the ``Languages
(babel)'' item beneath ``Languages/national specials''.

I recommend that you install texdoctk.  It's not perfect, but it
does allow you to find some of the more obscurely named documents
where texdoc fails.

   CMC

+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
 Behind the counter a boy with a shaven head stared vacantly into space, 
 a dozen spikes of microsoft protruding from the socket behind his ear.
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
   C.M. Connelly               c@eskimo.com                   SHC, DS
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+