Re: ConTeXt on Debian: The wiki entry

[Renaud AUBIN <aubin@nibua-r.org>]

Hi Frank,

A ConTeXt's package for debian will be great !

Frank Küster a écrit :

>Hi everybody,
>
>this mail has a double purpose.  At the end, there's a call for testers
>of a new (planned) Debian ConTeXt package that would be updated more
>frequently than now (at least in unstable and testing), where ConTeXt is
>tied to teTeX's or TeXlive's release cycles.  But first, I'd like to
>talk about 
>
>http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Debian_installation
>
>Are some of the people around who wrote this?  I found some information
>in it misleading and in part just wrong (this has already been pointed
>out two weaks ago by "plink"), and have started to edit the page to
>change the parts that give us, the Debian TeX maintaines, most
>headache.  But in the lower part, "Steps to finish a first context
>upgrade", I felt lost.  If these steps are really needed, then there's
>something seriously wrong in Debian's (and probably upstream's)
>packaging of ConTeXt.  Therefore I didn't just change the text to
>reflect how I think it should work.  Instead, we should try to figure
>out together whether it in fact does not work as it should, and then fix
>the Debian packages (hopefully still possible for etch).
>
>  
>
My contributions was to copy "Install a Metapost update" and "Install a
pdfTeX update" from tetex 3.0 Install to Debian Install...
>From my pov, ConTeXt is really great because of the reactivity of the
devs. As a consequence, new astonishing features are often added... but
there is a price: update often to the latest realease + install the
latest metapost and the latest pdfTeX (moreover, here I need the latest
beta of pdfTeX).

IMHO, it will be nice if the deb provides debian's specifics +
interactiv cont-tmf.zip download + install according debian specifics...
but there will be dependencies problems... Maybe a full standalone
context is the solution (with metapost, pdfTeX and all the binaries we
need coexisting with the tetex's one) ? Dunno...

Last point, it could be nice to have beta packages for ConTeXt an m-bib
(separated)...

>So the specific question I have are:
>
>- Is it intended that context formats end up in $TEXMF/web2c/pdfetex/?
>  If yes, why is that so?  If not, we should rather find out why it
>  happens and fix it.
>  
>
It's the way ConTeXt does... ConTeXt's gurus have surely good reasons so
I let them answer...

>- Why does it make a difference if the formats are created by fmtutil
>  instead of texexec (Except for the output directory)?  Should the
>  upstream packaging be changed so that fmtutil is never used, but
>  texexec, or should fmtutil be fixed to produce the same as texexec?  
>  
>
idem

>Finally, here comes Norbert Preining's Call for Testers:
>
>Dear all!
>
>We = Debian TeX maintainers searching for users of the Debian Operating
>Systems which are also using ConTeXt.
>
>Currently Debian etch (testing) and sid (unstable) contains packages for
>TeX live 2005. But this contains a bit old ConTeXt version, so users are
>asking us to update ConTeXt.
>
>We have prepared a updated ConTeXt package for Debian, based on the
>latest released version (2006.08.08), and would ask you to help use
>testing, as we are not experienced in ConTeXt type settings. I checked
>some simple documents from the ConTeXt Garden, and they worked, but more
>detailed testing would be nice.
>
>If you have interest, please contact us at
>	debian-tex-maint@lists.debian.org
>or, if you have a bit experience, you can straight away add
>	deb http://www.tug.org/texlive/Debian/ context/
>to your /etc/apt/sources.list file and install context. After this,
>please tell us our experiences/failures/suggestions.
>
>Thanks a lot and all the best
>
>  
>
OK, thanks, I'll do it as soon as I have a little more time (after my
PhD defense... ;) )

>Regards, Frank
>  
>

Renaud