🚀 go-pugleaf

I am in the process of revamping my Unix 386 binary distribution of
TeX, METAFONT and Co (TeX386ix).  An architecture specific distribution
turned out not to be such great idea, since only a few components were
really exclusive to 386 Unix.  The binaries for SVR3.2/386 wouldn't 
run under SVR4, so, with help from the net, I kept a replacement module
with the SVR4 binaries.  This could be easily extended to other Unix
systems.

Here is my proposal.  Create a self contained module with the
essential TeX/METAFONT source files + installation makefiles.
Create separate modules containing  architecture specific binaries
generated from the web2c package.  I have already rewritten my
TeX386ix installation makefiles which now should be ready to run under
any reasonable Unix platform.  In conjunction with web2c, the top
makefile can create an archive with the binaries for a given OS.  I
can generate them for Sparc, SV3.2/386 and IRIX 4.0, others could be
contributed by kind netters.  The sysadmin at math.berkeley.edu is
willing to store these archives in their ftp area.

I would like some suggestions on what should be in a "bare essentials"
distribution of TeX.  Currently, I have the minimum TeX and METAFONT
(plain TeX, cm fonts), LaTeX, BibTeX and some miscellaneous packages
(modes.mf, texinfo.tex and pictex).  Do I remove pictex (I haven't
used in a while)?  Add AmsTeX and AmsLateX?

The size for the current archives (compressed) is 1.2M for the sources
and 1.2M for the 386 binaries + manual pages.  The manual pages are
kept in the system specific archive, since they contain the built-in
pathnames. Fonts bitmaps are created during the installation process
and are not included in the distribution.