🚀 go-pugleaf

I am reasonably well acquainted with a traditional setup of TeX in
/usr/local/lib/tex etc. In planning an update of TeX, some questions arose
for which I invite comment.

* Overall system philosophy *

   Our administrator is in the process of changing all (?) applications
   into a structure with paths 
                                   _ bin
                                  |
                                  |_ doc
                                  |
       .../myapplication/current/
                                  |_ lib
                                  |
                                  |_ man

   Here, <current> is a link to a directory, say 'version1.1'.
   The main idea is that upgrades to new versions can be made quite simply,
   by compiling and testing in a directory ..../myapplication/version1.2/...
   The final installation then consists in making the link from current to
   version1.2.

* TeX considerations *

   TeX, mf, bibtex and friends seem to be so totally interwoven that I have
   doubts that it makes sense to split them completely into 3 such setups:
   .../TeX/current/... , .../MetaFont/current/... , .../BibTex/current/...
   (but correct me if you think I am wrong on this point!). And exactly 
   where would dvips fit into it?

   Somewhat independent of the general setup is the question for a
   rational setup of fonts (and inputs). Is it worth structuring 
   .../TeX/current/lib/fonts any deeper than into tfm, pk, vf? e.g. to
   accommodate entire groups of fonts in diretories of their own (the same
   qustion is also relevant for TeX and mf inputs).

   Are the hassles of insisting on a logical structure too great to make
   the exercise worthwile?


I would be glad to have comments of any general nature on these problems.
In particular:

   1) are we asking for unnecessary trouble by deviating from the 'norm'
      --- or is it worth starting a new trend?

   2) if the overall scheme is adopted for TeX etc, what would in your
      opinion be the most desirable file structure?

Thanks in advance,

Paul


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|  Paul Hafner                  'phone +64 9 373-7999 x 5748      |
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