Re: The Future of Debian's TeX packages
Ian> Speaking as a some-time user of TeX on only other people's files I've
Ian> found that one of TeX and particularly LaTeX's major problems is that
Ian> it is different everywhere, and so other people's documents often
Ian> don't compile on my setup.
Let me add my two cents on this. I have been using LaTeX since 1989, and
exclusively for all my computer-typeset documents since about 1990.
I only had difficulties with machines that were seriously behind in LaTeX
version, or where lacking some .sty or .cls files I had been using --- and
that is clearly not a distribution problem we have to worry about. I have
successfully shared, exchanged and co-developed files with emtex and sci-word
users on PCs, as well as with people using other Unix LaTeX version. I have
also used all my (old 2.09 plus NFSS) LaTeX files from the dark M$-DOG ages
under Linux, using a total of about three or four different Linux (La)TeX
versions.
TeX and LaTeX are meant to be *hardware* independent. I cannot understand how
the *distribution* dependencies should matter so much. AFAICT, all Unix
TeX/LaTeX implementations are derived from Karl Berry's genuine C sources.
Idem for the Plain TeX and LaTeX macros.
Ian> Would using an existing TeX distribution help this ?
I don't think so.
--
Dirk Eddelb"uttel http://qed.econ.queensu.ca/~edd
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