Bug#225833: Letter vs A4 again
Greg Stark <gsstark@mit.edu> wrote:
> would describe this, Debian users expect packages to user /etc/papersize and
> work automatically and won't have read any install document before installing
> the package.
OpenOffice doesn't use libpaper, either. And I think this is a sane
decision: A program that is designed to handle different paper sizes on
a document-per-document basis should not assume some system-wide
default. This will only confuse things.
> So while a user that installs from source also has to do this configuration
> it's no detour from the rest of their installation. Debian users are at a
> complete loss. They just typed "apt-get install tetex" and they're left with a
> broken package and no idea where to go from there.
I don't understand you. I don't see any brokenness. After you've
installed tetex, you can't create any document unless you've learned how
to write LaTeX code. Learning how to specifiy paper sizes to the
typesetting engine ("How long should the lines be?") is one thing,
learning how to specify paper sizes to the output processor (pdfTeX for
direct PDF output, dvipdfm(x) for dvi->PDF, dvips for dvi->PS) is an
other.
That's just the same as new users don't know how to specifiy unusual
page geometries, or include a picture, or whatever.
> The install messages don't say anything about tetexconfig-sys. It doesn't
> document that tetex doesn't obey /etc/papersize. Neither does the man page
> point them towards this FAQ or any other documentation. It just leaves them
> hanging with no idea where to go from there.
There's a long README.Debian in text and html form in the tetex-bin
package. texconfig-sys is explained there. Using debconf messages for
this would be debconf abuse. Maybe we can add a remark about papersizes
in the configuration section of this document.
The manpages don't tell you anything about /etc/papersize, how could
they when they come from upstream and don't know anything about it?
Yes, the pdftex manpage could point to the pdfTeX manual, that's a
wishlist bug, but has no relation to the question of papersizes.
Regards, Frank
--
Frank Küster
Single Molecule Spectroscopy, Protein Folding @ Inst. f. Biochemie, Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer (teTeX)
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