Re: Now is the time for all... (Was: A simple project.)

[Maurice Diamantini (free) <mdiam@free.fr>]

Le 17 nov. 04, à 11:53, Hans Hagen a écrit :

> Maurice Diamantini wrote:
>
>> The objective is to had a line such
>> source /xxx/context/setup.sh
>> in my bashrc without worying if I (or other xTeX user) have to do
>> either LaTeX or ConTeXt writing.
>
> Actually there has been something like that for a long time -)
>
> - when a new tex live comes out, i remove my old texmf tree and copy 
> the texlive one to my disk (ok, for the next one i need to copy both 
> texmf and texmf-dist to texmf on my disk)

A new standard tex dist is always relatively easy to install
(tetex or texlive)...

> - this will then include a version of context

... And there is a (old) version of context include.
But it is that way I'm using context today.
So far so good.
And I can personnalised my LaTeX distribution by using the
HOMETEXMF environment variable.


> - alongside i keep texmf-local and a few more (which has the beta
> context and such)

My problem (as a NOT guru xyzTeX administrator !) is precisely that
I have trouble in using a separate cont-tmf distribution in my own
tex tree (trouble with creating the formats).
i suppose I have to more investigate in this direction.

What I'm looking for, is a mean to use:
- my one cont-tmf uptodate tree, possibly with some "near standard"
   contrib addition (read "soon to be include in the standard Context
   distrib" e.g. t-bib, t-nath ;-)
- some personnal environnement variables (HOMETEXMF, or better:
   CONTEXT_HOME)
togother with any ***full standard LaTeX distribution*** wich I haven't
installed myself on a workstation I don't administre myself (read "in 
hostile
environment" :-). I only master my home directory.

If I have to modify the texlive distribution (or a configuration
file from). Then it is no more a standard texlive distrib.

So the two possibilities I envisage are:

1 - managing a separate context tree package in an hostile environment
     (the prefered solution if robust)

2 - manage a separate full context system.
     It's probable the easier way to go. And for less than 100 Mbytes
     it is no much more heavy than the simple con-tmf plus the format.
     Also, if I can do a multiplatform (powerpc-darwin, x86-linux, ...)
     non intrusive (with concurrent LaTeX distribution),
     I'll can make it installed everywere (around me).

     I have yet to solve some confict in my environnement (because
     for sample the context-live setup **cleer** all environment variable
     which concerne LaTeX, kpath, and other HOMETEXMF variable.

This second item was the main objective of this thread "Now is the 
time..".
I think the work is almost done with the minimal context-live
distribution. It need just some setup adjust.

> if you do
>
>    rsync -v www.pragma-pod.com::
>
> you will get all the trees that you can download

This doen't work at work because of a firewall.
I tried to use the option "-e ssh" which could work
if you had a secure shell demond enabled.
But it doesn't seem to!

The a try this night at home (with free.fr)
   rsync -av  www.pragma-pod.com::all  pragma-context-all
And it worked! (590 Moctets)

So this week-end, I have to retry to solve the setup problems.

> because i seperate things in trees, there is no danger in clashes with 
> existing stuff; also, the setup scripts set all variables in a 
> defensive way,
> so that there will be no clash with other distributions (that way i 
> can also keep several project trees with older context versions 
> available);

It a defensive way for ConTeXt user, not for LaTeX user.

> the reason for using architectre paths is that it permits me to have 
> out of sync binaries which means different pool files and formats)

\startLaughingMode

I agree that multi-architecture is needed, but the problem with
P.C users is that there is only two architecture in the world (;-)
1 - Windows
2 - the others

The most advanced pc users know also about "linux" and even "linux-64"
but an architecture is a combination between some hard  (sparc, powerpc,
x86, 64-x86) and some "operating system" (linux, bsd, sunos, cygwin,
darwin, )
This principle is very flexible, and support even "inoperating system'
(dos, dos++, windose95, windose95.2, macosClone, ...)

\stopLaughingMode

The best way to get an idea on how to deal which multi-architecture
is to look at the config.guess and config.sub from gnu configure
system (which seems used by the texlive distribution).
Context need not support all the architecture combination, but should
support the standard architecture system.

Here are some examples of a binary tree:
  alpha-linux
  i386-linux
  i386-openbsd -> i386-openbsd3.3
  i386-openbsd3.3
  powerpc-aix -> powerpc-aix4.3.3.0
  powerpc-aix4.3.3.0
  powerpc-darwin -> powerpc-darwin6.6
  powerpc-darwin6.6
  sparc-solaris -> sparc-solaris2.7
  sparc-solaris2.7
  sparc64-linux
  win32
  win32-static

I have a script I use for shoosing between a few architecture.
I can be be update for adapting to the supported ConTeXt binaries
arctitecture.

     http://www.ensta.fr/~diam/pub/guessarch/

All my configure scripts use set privaded string
e.g.
     # CONTEXT_HOME can be guessed from this script if not provided
     # by the user.
	CONTEXT_ARCH=`context-guessarch`
     PATH="$CONTEXT_HOME/bin/$CONTEXT_ARCH/:$PATH"

--
Maurice Diamantini