Bug#338608: Documenting change to tetex 3.0; deprecating initex and virtex.

[Junichi Uekawa <dancer@netfort.gr.jp>]

Hi,


> > To be more precise, removeal of initex could be a news but
> > its background, i.e. initex is replaced with "tex -ini"
> > is not a news.  Anyway I'd like to know what statement
> > in NEWS.Debian do you think is appropriate?
> 
> I object to that assertion; it wasn't really announced anywhere.
> 
> I would consider a statement like the following in 
> NEWS.Debian/README.Debian appropriate:
> 
> Debian tetex package deprecates initex and virtex commands since
> version 3.0.  initex has been superceded by -ini option of tex
> command; invoke 'tex -ini ' instead.  For virtex, there is no
> replacement, since Debian tetex maintainers know of no users of the
> command.  The references you find in tex books and documentation
> published in the past century are wrong; please do live in the 21st
> century.
> 

Since I have a better understanding on this problem at hand:

Debian tetex packages now use pdfetex. 'initex' interface does not
survive that change and is now deprecated. For generating formats, use
'-ini' command-line option of respective formats. 'latex -ini &latex
xxx.tex' will dump the format.
To obtain the file extention of the format file, use the filename 
generated by 'kpsewhich --format fmt latex' (However, note that 
sarge tetex has a workaround, and thus cannot be relied upon).


regards,
	junichi

-- 
dancer@{debian.org,netfort.gr.jp}   Debian Project