Bug#100332: Bug#51869: New package splitting scheme for teTeX in Debian
Elrond <elrond+bugs.debian.org@samba-tng.org> wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 24, 2005 at 01:32:08PM +0200, Frank Küster wrote:
>
>> But I am not familiar to the
>> problems that the X people tried to solve with the modularized xlibs wrt
>> this transition;
>
> I haven't followed it too deeply either. But the generic
> idea I can see:
> Have small packages with clear functionality, that then can
> be easily replaced by a "from scratch" new package from the
> to-be-transitioned-to package.
I don't think that it can be out goal that tetex and tex-live can really
be mixed. It should be possible to install a font that's only in
texlive in a tetex-based system, or a LaTeX package. But something like
"dvips from tetex, xdvi from tex-live" cannot be our goal, I think.
> The other extreme: if they should coexist and be
> interchangeable and stuff, it might for example make sense
> to have bunches of virtual packages, which either of the
> both can provide. Like tex-ctan-PACKAGE or tex-xdvi, etc...
> So that other packages can depend on the feature they need.
> Say tetex-beamer needs pstricks, it would then depend on
> tex-ctan-pstricks, which would be provided by
> texlive-pstricks and the tetex-*, that is going to have it.
That makes me think even more that we shouldn't do this. On the one
hand, we have decided to *not* do the big work and split tetex-base into
many small packages: Because this work has already been done, and is
called texlive. On the other hand, a virtual package requires a
definition of what it provides, and a detailed definition in terms of an
interface, not just "LaTeX packages to influence the TOC and List of
Figures/Tables". Personally, I don't want to go that way.
> So I think, the question is: What is the intended audience
> of tetex vs. texlive?
> One part of this answer has already been given: For
> build-dependencies, tetex should be the choice.
> But what about the rest?
As I see it:
- People who want a medium-sized system without having to bother about
package selections install teTeX
- People who want fine control over what is installed take texlive
- People who want "simply everything" also take texlive.
The first group will also contain a subgroup: Maintainers of packages
that Depend on or Recommend "some TeX package" and don't want to dig
into the splitting to find out what they really need, plus follow the
development of their upstream and tetex/texlive whether their old choice
is still correct.
Regards, Frank
--
Frank Küster
Inst. f. Biochemie der Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer
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