INstalling a new version of context

INstalling a new version of context

[olibou]

Hello !

I tried to install a new version of context, since somebody suggest to
do it (BTW I do not know how know what version of context I have
... running texexec --version gives me the version of texexec, I
presume, not the version of context ... but anyway ... that not my
sole problem, as for now).

So I used to have a version of context install by default :-) on my
mandrake 10.1 distribution of linux ...

To upgrade I have downloaded
http://www.pragma-ade.com/context/current/cont-tmf.zip
and read also part of 
http://www.pragma-ade.com/general/manuals/minstall.pdf

It says that I have to unzip cont-tmf.zip in /usr/share/texmf ... 
which I have done ... 

And then they say we have to regenerate format .... but I'm not that
expert to understand what it means ...
What I have done is fmtutil --all

But my context distrib does not work anymore ... ;-(

Could anybody help me ?

I have relink
ln -s /usr/share/texmf/context/perltk/texexec.pl /usr/bin/texexec 
since /usr/bin/texexec was the location where my shell use to find
texec ... But I'm probably messing everything doing that. 


Anyway, I have NOT "regenerate the format" and try to use texexec ..
but on a simple "hello world" example stored in hw.tex file :

\starttext
Hello World !
\stoptext

it gives me this output ;-(

oli@olinux:~/E/Context
 # texexec --verbose hw.tex

 TeXExec 3.1 - ConTeXt / PRAGMA ADE 1997-2002

          current path : /home/oli/E/Context
     locating ini file : found by kpsewhich
               reading : /usr/share/texmf/context/config/texexec.ini
               setting : 'TeXShell' to 'tetex' for 'all'
               setting : 'UsedInterfaces' to 'en nl metafun mptopdf' for 'all'
               setting : 'UserInterface' to 'en' for 'all'
               setting : 'TeXExecutable' to 'tex' for 'all'
               setting : 'MpExecutable' to 'mpost' for 'all'
               setting : 'MpToTeXExecutable' to 'mpto' for 'all'
               setting : 'DviToMpExecutable' to 'dvitomp' for 'all'
               setting : 'DviSpecialScript' to 'dvispec' for 'all'
               setting : 'MpFormat' to 'metafun' for 'all'
               setting : 'TeXFormatFlag' to '&' for 'all'
               setting : 'MpFormatFlag' to '&' for 'all'
               setting : 'TeXFontsPath' to 'l:/tex/texmf;l:/tex/texmf-local;' for 'all'
               setting : 'TeXExecutable' to 'pdfetex' for 'tetex'
               setting : 'TeXVirginFlag' to '-ini' for 'tetex'
               setting : 'TeXPassString' to '-progname=context' for 'tetex'
               setting : 'TeXBatchFlag' to '-int=batchmode' for 'tetex'
               setting : 'MpToTeXExecutable' to 'mpto' for 'tetex'
               setting : 'MpVirginFlag' to '-ini' for 'tetex'
               setting : 'MpPassString' to '-progname=mpost' for 'tetex'
               setting : 'MpBatchFlag' to '-int=batchmode' for 'tetex'

          used setting : TeXShell = tetex
          used setting : SetupPath = 
          used setting : UserInterface = en
          used setting : UsedInterfaces = en nl metafun mptopdf
          used setting : TeXFontsPath = l:/tex/texmf;l:/tex/texmf-local;
          used setting : MpExecutable = mpost
          used setting : MpToTeXExecutable = mpto
          used setting : DviToMpExecutable = dvitomp
          used setting : TeXProgramPath = 
          used setting : TeXFormatPath = 
          used setting : ConTeXtPath = 
          used setting : TeXScriptsPath = 
          used setting : TeXExecutable = pdfetex
          used setting : TeXVirginFlag = -ini
          used setting : TeXBatchFlag = -int=batchmode
          used setting : MpBatchFlag = -int=batchmode
          used setting : TeXPassString = -progname=context
          used setting : TeXFormatFlag = &
          used setting : MpFormatFlag = &
          used setting : MpVirginFlag = -ini
          used setting : MpPassString = -progname=mpost
          used setting : MpFormat = metafun
          used setting : MpFormatPath = 
          used setting : FmtLanguage = 
          used setting : FmtBodyFont = 
          used setting : FmtResponse = 
          used setting : TcXPath = 
          used setting : SetFile = 

 applications will use : /usr/share/texmf/web2c/texmf.cnf
      locating fmtutil : /usr/bin/fmtutil

            executable : pdfetex
                format : cont-en
             inputfile : hw
                output : standard
             interface : en
               options : verbose
          current mode : none
               TeX run : 1


pdfetex  -progname=context  \&cont-en hw.tex

This is pdfeTeX, Version 3.14159-1.10b-2.1 (Web2C 7.4.5)
entering extended mode
(./hw.tex{/usr/share/texmf/pdftex/config/pdftex.cfg}

ConTeXt  ver: 2005.01.31  fmt: 2005.5.7  int: english  mes: english

systems         : pdfTeX version 110 -> please update

systems         : eTeX version 201 -> too old (bugs)

language        : language en is active
<protectionstate 0>
system          : cont-new loaded
(/usr/share/texmf/tex/context/base/cont-new.tex
systems         : beware: some patches loaded from cont-new.tex!
color           : palette rollover is available
system (E-TEX) : [line 878] 
system (E-TEX) : [line 933] 
)
system          : cont-old loaded
(/usr/share/texmf/tex/context/base/cont-old.tex
loading         : Context Old Macros
)
system          : cont-fil loaded
(/usr/share/texmf/tex/context/base/cont-fil.tex
loading         : Context File Synonyms
)
system          : cont-sys.rme loaded
(/usr/share/texmf/tex/context/user/cont-sys.rme
(/usr/share/texmf/tex/context/base/type-syn.tex)
(/usr/share/texmf/tex/context/base/type-enc.tex)
(/usr/share/texmf/tex/context/base/type-dis.tex)
(/usr/share/texmf/tex/context/base/type-siz.tex)
(/usr/share/texmf/tex/context/base/type-map.tex)
(/usr/share/texmf/tex/context/base/type-spe.tex)
(/usr/share/texmf/tex/context/base/type-exa.tex)
(/usr/share/texmf/tex/context/base/type-akb.tex))
bodyfont        : 12pt rm is loaded
language        : patterns en->default:default->1->2:2 uk->default:default->2->
2:2 de->texnansi:texnansi->3->2:2 de->ec:ec->4->2:2 fr->texnansi:texnansi->5->2
:2 fr->ec:ec->6->2:2 es->default:default->7->2:2 it->texnansi:texnansi->8->2:2 
it->ec:ec->9->2:2 nl->texnansi:texnansi->10->2:2 nl->ec:ec->11->2:2 loaded
specials        : tex,postscript,rokicki loaded
system          : hw.top loaded
(./hw.top
! Undefined control sequence.
<argument> \c!gebied 
                     ={/home/oli/}
\xprocesscommaitem #1,#2->\if ,#1
                                 ,\@EA \xprocesscommaitem \else \if ]#1\@EAE...

\xdogetparameters #1]->\xprocesscommaitem #1,]
                                              ,\@relax@ 
\dosetupsystem [#1]->\getparameters [\??sv ][#1]
                                                \setuprandomize [\@@svrandom...
l.2 \setupsystem[\c!gebied={/home/oli/}]
                                        
? 

-- 
 Oli

Re: INstalling a new version of context

[John R. Culleton]

On Saturday 07 May 2005 06:01 pm, olibou@free.fr wrote:
> Hello !
>
> I tried to install a new version of context, since somebody suggest to
> do it (BTW I do not know how know what version of context I have
> ... running texexec --version gives me the version of texexec, I
> presume, not the version of context ... but anyway ... that not my
> sole problem, as for now).
>
> So I used to have a version of context install by default :-) on my
> mandrake 10.1 distribution of linux ...

The upgrading of Context or even of pdftex is sufficiently
failure prone that I have given up trying. Instead I used the
latest packages from Slackware current and installed those.
When TeX live is updated again next winter I will upgrade to that
level. The instructions never seem to deal with the exact
configuration one is dealing with. Frankly I would rather spend
my time typesetting and laying out books. So I accept the newest
complete package that seems to work and reinstall. In theory I
could upgrade, in fact I am better off waiting for the next
complete distro from either TeXlive or Slack. 

John Culleton
The answers to all your publishing questions are found 
in the excellent books listed in the word-famous shortlist!
http://wexfordpress.com/tex/shortlist.pdf

Re: INstalling a new version of context

[olibou]

I finally succeed installing this new version ... at least
s-pre-61.tex compiles ;-)
-- 
 Oli

Re: INstalling a new version of context

[Hans Hagen]

John R. Culleton wrote:
> On Saturday 07 May 2005 06:01 pm, olibou@free.fr wrote:
> 
>>Hello !
>>
>>I tried to install a new version of context, since somebody suggest to
>>do it (BTW I do not know how know what version of context I have
>>... running texexec --version gives me the version of texexec, I
>>presume, not the version of context ... but anyway ... that not my
>>sole problem, as for now).
>>
>>So I used to have a version of context install by default :-) on my
>>mandrake 10.1 distribution of linux ...
> 
> 
> The upgrading of Context or even of pdftex is sufficiently
> failure prone that I have given up trying. Instead I used the
> latest packages from Slackware current and installed those.
> When TeX live is updated again next winter I will upgrade to that
> level. The instructions never seem to deal with the exact
> configuration one is dealing with. Frankly I would rather spend
> my time typesetting and laying out books. So I accept the newest
> complete package that seems to work and reinstall. In theory I
> could upgrade, in fact I am better off waiting for the next
> complete distro from either TeXlive or Slack. 

most linux distros ship old tex's and it's no secret that one cannot combine 
tetex with tex live without problems; it's one or the other.

an option with regardd to context is to download the linuxtex zip from our site 
and install an extra tex tree for context only and install updates in that tree 
(under texmf-local)

Hans


-----------------------------------------------------------------
                                           Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
               Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
      tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com
                                              | www.pragma-pod.nl
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Re: INstalling a new version of context

[Hans Hagen]

olibou@free.fr wrote:

> To upgrade I have downloaded
> http://www.pragma-ade.com/context/current/cont-tmf.zip
> and read also part of 
> http://www.pragma-ade.com/general/manuals/minstall.pdf

wget www.pragma-ade.com/context/install/linuxtex.zip
unzip linuxtex.zip
cd tex
. setuptex
texexec --make --all

after that, for each shell:

. ~/tex/setuptex ~/tex

(given tat you're in your home path)

and you're done; an update:

cd texmf-local
wget www.pragma-ade.com/context/latest/cont-tmf.zip
unzip cont-tmf.zip
texexec --make --all

etc




Hans

-----------------------------------------------------------------
                                           Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
               Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
      tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com
                                              | www.pragma-pod.nl
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Re: INstalling a new version of context

[John R. Culleton]

On Sunday 08 May 2005 08:44 pm, Hans Hagen wrote:
>
> wget www.pragma-ade.com/context/install/linuxtex.zip
> unzip linuxtex.zip
> cd tex
> . setuptex
> texexec --make --all
>
> after that, for each shell:
>
> . ~/tex/setuptex ~/tex
>
> (given tat you're in your home path)

Following the above as a cookbook approach there is a problem
with the texexec line. First I should mention that my default
system path points to the TeXLive path of
/usr/TeX/bin/i386-linux.  so
texexec --make --all will execute that program. If I go to the
new texexec and execute it specifically:
/usr/local/tex/texmf-linux/bin/texexec --make --all
then it can't find Ruby. 

Also, the setuptex program as distributed is not marked as
executable. If i mark it as executable and execute it the
execution is in the blink of an eye. I am not sure it actually
does anything. When I do 
set |less
the value  of TEXROOT does not show up. 

In the directory usr/local/tex/texmf-linux/bin 
if I execute 
./pdfetex
I get version 1.20a-2.2 (Web2C 7.5.3

But if I go to /usr/share/texmf/bin (the Slackware distribution
of TeX)
and execute 
./pdfetex 
I get
1.21a-2.2 (Web2C 7.5.4)

So the download of linuxtex.zip from Pragma gives an older version of
crucial software than the straight Slackware install. Hence I
will revert to that path.

 
John Culleton
The answers to all your publishing questions are found 
in the excellent books listed in the word-famous shortlist!
http://wexfordpress.com/tex/shortlist.pdf

Re: INstalling a new version of context

[bb]

> The upgrading of Context or even of pdftex is sufficiently
> failure prone that I have given up trying.

I tend to agree. I follow the meager instructions I have found, as
well as some direct help from hh himself and am still not able to get
it working right. I think the problem is with hacked engine support. I
try disabling the use of engine but I still get the same problem. At
this point I am tracking down a weird error in texexec.pl in which
kpsewhich returns a null result and TEXFORMATS gets set to '0'. This
wreaks havoc and breaks everything. I suspect texlive texmf.cnf
settings trigger a bug in texexec.

Perhaps everything would work just fine with the limited linux tex
distribution from pragma. But I, like many others, prefer to use
texlive because it is fairly comprehensive and I can use my normal
latex and friends. I think it would be a very useful exercise for hh
to install a complete texlive on a stock fedora box. Then write down
_every_ step necessary to get beta cont-tmf.zip installed and working.
I would think that targeting texlive as the standard platform for
distributing context on linux/unix would make the most sense. It
should _not_ be necessary to make anything but a trivial change to
texmf.cnf.

sc

Re: INstalling a new version of context

[Taco Hoekwater]

bb wrote:
> 
> I think it would be a very useful exercise for hh
> to install a complete texlive on a stock fedora box. 

I'm sure he would be happy to, if you provided the box and some
funding (!).
Most developers that work on free software miss at least
one of the following:

  * spare hardware
  * spare disk space
  * spare operating systems
  * spare time

> Then write down
> _every_ step necessary to get beta cont-tmf.zip installed and working.

I guess I could conceivably try to do this, as long as I only have to
do it once, but I will not be able to provide support for it afterwards.

I have a fairly complex TeX setup, and for that reason I do not
use texlive. I can try to write down this howto for *current* context
beta and *current* pdfetex, but afterwards I have to revert my system
back to 'normal operation' immediately, so there is no way for me to
keep on helping people after the initial installation.

Assuming someone volunteers to pick up supporting context-on-texlive
afterwards, then I am willing to write down the initial page.
But I do not want to waste a day fighting TeXlive for no good,
so unless I hear from someone, I will do nothing.

> I would think that targeting texlive as the standard platform for
> distributing context on linux/unix would make the most sense. It
> should _not_ be necessary to make anything but a trivial change to
> texmf.cnf.

Have you complained to the TeXlive maintainers as well? After all,
they are the distributors. Perhaps they could make it just a bit
easier to add stuff to an existing TeXlive install? The upgrade
path for  any TeXlive basically is: download an update iso image,
burn it, and re-install. There is no support for partial upgrades
(at least there wasn't last time I looked, which is, admittedly,
  a few years ago)

Taco

Re: INstalling a new version of context

[bb]

On 5/9/05, Taco Hoekwater <taco@elvenkind.com> wrote:
> bb wrote:
> >
> > I think it would be a very useful exercise for hh
> > to install a complete texlive on a stock fedora box.
> 
> I'm sure he would be happy to, if you provided the box and some
> funding (!).

Reading my own words I see how they don't exactly convey warm
appreciation for all the hard work that has been put into context.
Allow me to retract them and offer instead to help, as time, money,
and resources permit :-)

> > Then write down
> > _every_ step necessary to get beta cont-tmf.zip installed and working.
> 
> I guess I could conceivably try to do this, as long as I only have to
> do it once, but I will not be able to provide support for it afterwards.

I can understand your reluctance, especially since texlive has
installation and maintenance issues of its own, as you allude to
below. Since texlive 2005 is in the process of being worked out,
perhaps a better use of time would be to ensure that a fully
functional, up-to-date (and upgradable!) context gets included.

> I have a fairly complex TeX setup, and for that reason I do not
> use texlive. I can try to write down this howto for *current* context
> beta and *current* pdfetex, but afterwards I have to revert my system
> back to 'normal operation' immediately, so there is no way for me to
> keep on helping people after the initial installation.

It would be a very good thing if stock texlive could reside in texmf
and texmf-dist while your complex setup and bleeding edge stuff could
reside in texmf-var, texmf-local, texmf-fonts, texmf-extras, etc. I
can guess at several reasons why this might not be feasible. But it
would be a worthy goal for both texlive and context to make such
interoperability and upgradability  trivial. The current confusion
over engine support, for example, is simply maddening.

Texlive is the closest thing that exists to a standard TeX "platform".
One of its virtues, in my opinion, is its inflexibility. It is fairly
stable over time and does not vary significantly across distributions
like tetex does.

> 
> Assuming someone volunteers to pick up supporting context-on-texlive
> afterwards, then I am willing to write down the initial page.
> But I do not want to waste a day fighting TeXlive for no good,
> so unless I hear from someone, I will do nothing.

I am hesitant to accept your offer because I am afraid that my
problems will be exposed as pathetically easy to fix. Before you go to
the trouble, I will take some time to debug texexec.pl, which is where
I think the final problem is. If I succeed, I will post the recipe on
contextgarden.

> > I would think that targeting texlive as the standard platform for
> > distributing context on linux/unix would make the most sense. It
> > should _not_ be necessary to make anything but a trivial change to
> > texmf.cnf.
> 
> Have you complained to the TeXlive maintainers as well? 

Haven't I made enough enemies already :-)

Re: INstalling a new version of context

[Taco Hoekwater]

bb wrote:
> 
> Reading my own words I see how they don't exactly convey warm
> appreciation for all the hard work that has been put into context.

That's ok, i have written stuff in the not so distant past that
was much, much less appreciative. :-)

> below. Since texlive 2005 is in the process of being worked out,
> perhaps a better use of time would be to ensure that a fully
> functional, up-to-date (and upgradable!) context gets included.

It wouldn't stay up-to-date for the whole year, only for the first
six months or so. But you are right that the current (texlive2004)
situation is particularly messy, and an effort should be made to
make sure that the next texlive starts off with a more stable
situation.

Taco

Re: INstalling a new version of context

[bb]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 2318 bytes --]

I think I have things working with texlive. I will reproduce the
installation to make sure I capture all steps. It basically comes down
to:

1) Install texlive 2004 to /usr/local/TeX

2) (possibly optional) Compile new pdftex, pdfetex and pdfxtex and
replace executable and pool files in /usr/local/TeX/bin/i386-linux/
and /usr/local/TeX/texmf-local/web2c/ respectively.

3) Install beta cont-tmf.zip into /usr/local/TeX/texmf-context

4) Edit /usr/local/TeX/texmf-local/web2c/texmf.cnf to include the
following modifications from the copy in /usr/local/TeX/texmf/web2c:
TEXMFCONTEXT=$SELFAUTOPARENT/texmf-context
TEXMF={$HOMETEXMF,!!$VARTEXMF,$TEXMFLOCAL,!!$TEXMFCONTEXT,!!$TEXMFMAIN,!!$TEXMFDIST}

5) wget http://www.pragma-ade.com/context/install/linuxtex.zip 
Unzip the file into a temporary directory and cd to tex/texmf-linux/bin.
Copy only the small stub scripts (all less than 50 bytes) to
/usr/local/TeX/bin/i386-linux overwriting similarly named executables.
Copy texmfstart to the same place, again overwriting the existing
executable. Delete the rest of the temporary linuxtex installation.

6) Update /usr/local/TeX/texmf-context/scripts/context/perl/texexec.pl
with the attached patch.

7) Download the latest lm fonts from CTAN and install them in the
correct folders in texmf-context.

8) Run updmap.

9) Run texexec --make --all

I'm sure I have forgotten some crucial step. Corrections and
simplifications are welcome.

On 5/9/05, Taco Hoekwater <taco@elvenkind.com> wrote:
> bb wrote:
> >
> > Reading my own words I see how they don't exactly convey warm
> > appreciation for all the hard work that has been put into context.
> 
> That's ok, i have written stuff in the not so distant past that
> was much, much less appreciative. :-)
> 
> > below. Since texlive 2005 is in the process of being worked out,
> > perhaps a better use of time would be to ensure that a fully
> > functional, up-to-date (and upgradable!) context gets included.
> 
> It wouldn't stay up-to-date for the whole year, only for the first
> six months or so. But you are right that the current (texlive2004)
> situation is particularly messy, and an effort should be made to
> make sure that the next texlive starts off with a more stable
> situation.
> 
> Taco
> 
>

[-- Warning: decoded text below may be mangled, UTF-8 assumed --]
[-- Attachment #2: texexec.pl.patch --]
[-- Type: text/x-patch; name="texexec.pl.patch", Size: 1561 bytes --]

*** /usr/local/TeX/texmf-context/scripts/context/perl/texexec.pl	2005-04-21 18:16:27.000000000 -0400
--- /usr/local/TeX/texmf-local/scripts/context/perl/texexec.pl	2005-05-09 14:39:51.000000000 -0400
***************
*** 2305,2313 ****
          # fall back
          if ($FormatPath eq '') {
              if (($UseEnginePath)&&($EngineDone)) {
!                 $FormatPath = `$kpsewhich --engine=$EnginePath --expand-var=\$TEXFORMATS` ;
              } else {
!                 $FormatPath = `$kpsewhich --expand-var=\$TEXFORMATS` ;
              }
          }
          chomp $FormatPath ;
--- 2305,2313 ----
          # fall back
          if ($FormatPath eq '') {
              if (($UseEnginePath)&&($EngineDone)) {
!                 $FormatPath = `$kpsewhich --engine=$EnginePath --expand-var=\\\$TEXFORMATS` ;
              } else {
!                 $FormatPath = `$kpsewhich --expand-var=\\\$TEXFORMATS` ;
              }
          }
          chomp $FormatPath ;
***************
*** 2474,2480 ****
          $texformats = '' ;
      }
      if ($texformats eq '') {
!         $texformats = `kpsewhich --expand-var=\$TEXFORMATS`.chomp ;
      }
      if ($texformats !~ /web2c[\/\\].*\$ENGINE/) {
          $texformats =~ s/web2c/web2c\/{\$ENGINE,}/ ;
--- 2474,2481 ----
          $texformats = '' ;
      }
      if ($texformats eq '') {
!         $texformats = `kpsewhich --expand-var=\\\$TEXFORMATS` ;
!         chomp($texformats) ;
      }
      if ($texformats !~ /web2c[\/\\].*\$ENGINE/) {
          $texformats =~ s/web2c/web2c\/{\$ENGINE,}/ ;

[-- Attachment #3: Type: text/plain, Size: 139 bytes --]

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Re: INstalling a new version of context

[Hans Hagen]

bb wrote:

> It would be a very good thing if stock texlive could reside in texmf
> and texmf-dist while your complex setup and bleeding edge stuff could
> reside in texmf-var, texmf-local, texmf-fonts, texmf-extras, etc. I
> can guess at several reasons why this might not be feasible. But it
> would be a worthy goal for both texlive and context to make such
> interoperability and upgradability  trivial. The current confusion
> over engine support, for example, is simply maddening.
> 
> Texlive is the closest thing that exists to a standard TeX "platform".
> One of its virtues, in my opinion, is its inflexibility. It is fairly
> stable over time and does not vary significantly across distributions
> like tetex does.

>>Have you complained to the TeXlive maintainers as well? 
>  
> Haven't I made enough enemies already :-)

not yet -)

TeX Live is both a binary distribution and a collection of resources.

Normally context -as shipped with tex live- works ok, apart from changes in non 
context specific parts that went unnoticed (chnages in font names, changes in 
patterns, and such) which may lead to broken functionality.

Sebastian always tries to get the latest greatest context in there and tests it 
as well, so the problem is not in tex live as it is.

The binaries are a different story. There is a close relationship between 
binaries like pdftex, mpost on the one hand and kpse and texmf.cnf on the other 
hand; and then there are of course the scripts that call these programs.

It has always been kind of a struggle to make the scripts work for all 
platforms. The main reason for this is that the user interface of kpse is unix 
based and assumes a certain shell. Also, some associated scripts (fmtutil, 
updmap) are shell scripts. One can safely say that therefore tex live is mostly 
a unix distribution. History has learned that it's kind of tricky to keep the 
windows and unix versions in sync (if only because there are two source trees);

last year there has been several incompatible changes in tds and the binaries; 
to mention a few:

- the multiple suffixes (efmt,ofmt,fmt,xfmt,..) were replaced by one (fmt) under 
the assumption that the engine subpath would be used to distinguish between 
aleph, pdfetex, xetex, etc.; unfortunately in practice this is not supported due 
to the fact that it's too complex to incorporate in the form generating scripts;
---> this is why in texexec i need to deal with it myself and also need to catch 
old cases etc; shell escaping is thereby rather painful.

- font paths (enc/map) has changed in an downwards incompatible way ---> this 
can be repaired by the textools script

- as usual there were changes in patterns that went unnoticed ---> this is why i 
will start shipping context with its own pattern files

- the script paths has changed as well as the way to locate scripts in the tree; 
which is quite painful fro those who run tex in integrated environments --> this 
is solved by using texmfstart as stub [that way i can try to remain downward 
compatible]

keep in mind that some context users use aleph/pdfetex/xetex alongside and that 
many context users use fonts not present in the standard tree; so, we need to 
deal with that ourselves

now, on my main machine i use windows and on the webservers linux; i never had 
problems in getting things running on windows, but unxi has always been 
troublesome, esp in updating systems that had already some kind of tex 
installed; this is why i always use the minimal distributions on unix: 
setuptex.sh nicely isolated the tree from whatever present; it is a known fact 
that, although tex live is rathere closely related to tetex, one should not 
install both alongside: different selection, different installation etc; macosx 
is yet another story but as far as i can see, gerben does a good job in 
providing update paths (no surprose since tex on the mac is moving faster than 
the rest)

it may be good to know that the last user group dvd actually shipped with 
protext based on miktex; miktex also has an update policy; it would be 
interesting to see what happens with the miktex for unix announcement.

currently fptex (or its more extensive version xemtex) is maintained 
independently from the rest of tex live, thereby maing tex live more and more 
unix adventure (apart from the resources tree)

another source of confusion is the fact that each distribution ships with 
different trees (texmf, texmf-local, texmf.local, texmfte, texmfgw, texmf-dist, 
texmf-doc, etc); here i always merge the common part into texmf, and put context 
updates in texmf-local

if you want the best tree: take the texmf tree from the user group dvd; this is 
a merge of the tex live trees, a bunch of ctan goodies, extra fonts etc; 
personally i tend to consider manfred's tree as the default one

so ... it's a complex live out there

and .. don't blame the maintainers too much .. it's not trivial to keep track of 
all changes in operating systems, compilers, libraries, macro packages etc ... 
it's only unfortunate that the common binary base is developed in a bit too 
platform bound way [but i try to hide as much as possible by using texexec cum suis]


Hans

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                                           Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
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