can't build teTeX port in FreeBSD 8.2 amd64

Polytropon freebsd at edvax.de
Mon Jul 18 09:38:25 UTC 2011


On Mon, 18 Jul 2011 10:19:13 +0100, Anton Shterenlikht wrote:
> If you know of another tex project where teTeX fails,
> please send me the details. I'm keen to patch
> teTeX as far as possible with no major
> changes to TDS, i.e. just adding or updating
> a package.

If TeXlive is (or becomes) "the LaTeX" (obsoleting teTeX),
there should be a proper integration with the ports system,
e. g. downloading the ISO and running the install scripts
when you do "make install", and even pkg_add should be
possible.

Furthermore, there should be a way to define dependencies
correctly, e. g. if you've already installed TeXlive, there's
no obvious reason to also install teTeX - except some ports
define it as a dependency. So maybe there could be a switch
to define an override or a preference, e. g. in /etc/make.conf
in a form of LATEX=TEXLIVE or LATEX=TETEX (with a reasonable
default, maybe really =TEXLIVE), and ports depending on
"some LaTeX" should honor this preference.

Even with our endless hard disks, some users do not see it
as "good practice" to install two functionally nearly
identical software packages. :-)

I'm writing this as a long-term teTeX user.


-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...


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