Re: stable new-minimals distribution?

["Mojca Miklavec" <mojca.miklavec.lists@gmail.com>]

On Dec 18, 2007 2:48 PM, Santy, Michael wrote:
>
> I see on the wiki that there are plans to create a "stable", "beta", and
> "broken" branches of the new minimals distribution on
> minimals.contextgarden.net.

Well, that thing with "broken" was more like a joke :)

> Is the eventual goal of this to replace the
> current mechanism for obtaining minimals and cont-tmf as zip files from
> Pragma?  If so, when is this change over set to happen?

The main advantage is that it consumes less bandwidth (only downloads
newer files) and that the binaries and fonts are updated together with
ConTeXt :)

I use that one already, and it seems to work OK in most respects.
There's the latest ConTeXt, latest fonts, and more-or-less the latest
binaries for every platform. But some things (most notaly the
documentation and some font metrics that ship with PRAGMA's zips) are
missing. And it would be nice to have some code which would enable one
to use local configuration for deciding which fonts/modules/engines to
use.
Etc etc. (Also: when I rebuild the minimals, files might be out of
sync - say, new ConTeXt, but old LuaTeX for Mac PPC and Linux 64. Or
accidentally copying mac binaries to Linux, some files in Akira's
W32TeX or fonts renamed ... Some basic testing should become part of
the game as well.)

I would say: you are free to use it, but the location and details may
still change (any feedback is welcome though).

The starting point is here:
    http://minimals.contextgarden.net/setup/
or here:
    http://minimals.contextgarden.net/pragma/
(two different things - the second one is more similar to PRAGMA, but
both strategies should result in the same set of files)

Once the method is stable and ready, it will be announced, but I don't
find it has reached that point yet.


Here's an old unfinished message that I keep in drafts for quite some
time already:

----------------------

Hello,

a while back I have started experimenting with svn/rsync (together
with Arthur, Hans and Taco) since I thought that downloading of
"standalone zips" each time something had been updated was an
unnecessary loss of bandwidth and time.

== What? ==

For those who want it served in two words: at
    http://minimals.contextgarden.net/pragma/
there are equivalent (but *not* identical !!!) zips as on Hans's page.


== Why? ==

I have put them there for two main reasons:
- to get some feedback about their (missing) functionality
- because the ones on Pragma are slightly outdated (and I suspect that
Hans might be waiting for the new minimals to appear and waits with
updating the zips exactly for that reason)

== WARNING ==

Now a big warning sign: the location of those files might and probably
*will change*. (We're also running out of disk space on the garden. I
have no idea when the bandwidth will reach its limit, but let's hope
that it will suffice for now.)

So: feel free to download, test and use those files, but do *not* rely
on that location or whatever else util announced. Use at your own risk
until that timepoint.

Also note that this is *not* (at least not yet) any official release
of the Standalone distribution. It might replace it in future, but at
the moment it is completely independent.

== Main difference with the files on Pragma ==

"Incompatible" differences:
- texmf-local renamed to texmf-context (texmf-local is really meant
for local stuff)
- texmf-macosx renamed (split into osx-intel and osx-ppc)

What's there:
- the latest binaries for almost all the platforms
- the latest versions of fonts, including TeX Gyre, and including
OpenType versions of all the Polish fonts
- the latest version of ConTeXt
- man pages (thanks to Sanjoy and others - feel free to send updates)
- the same set of modules as in Hans's distro + t-tikz
- support for Solaris added, other platforms might be added on request
rather easily (if anyone is willing to provide the binaries for XeTeX
and LuaTeX)

Missing:
- documentation & licences for just about everything except modules
- there's no mswincontext (yet) - fixing other things has a priority
at the moment, and one can still take the old mswincontext and replace
only the relevant parts
- quite some font files in comparison to Hans's distribution (I need
to figure out which are the important ones)
- *you* need to tell if you miss something else
- backup on the server

Updating is "semiautomatic". That means that someone needs to submit
new binaries (XeTeX, LuaTeX) manually (except for Windows), fonts and
ConTeXt are fetched and rearranged automatically, but the main update
script is still triggered manually (for the moment).
___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
webpage  : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net
archive  : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/
wiki     : http://contextgarden.net
___________________________________________________________________________________