Message-Id: <199402071139.AA06243@mail.cs.tu-berlin.de>
Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <LATEX-L@DHDURZ1.BITNET>
Date:         Mon, 7 Feb 1994 12:36:00 +0100
From: Frank Mittelbach <MITTELBACH@mzdmza.zdv.uni-mainz.de>
Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <LATEX-L@DHDURZ1.BITNET>
To: Multiple recipients of list LATEX-L <LATEX-L@DHDURZ1.BITNET>
Subject:      Installing LaTeX
Status: R

Installing LaTeX

> PROBLEM: Latex installation requires too many decisions. I am nearly in a
> position to decide on DC fonts and other issues, but it has taken a lot of
> effort. Most of the contributors to this list seem to be familiar with these
> questions: most of the potential users are not.

we know that nfss2 was too difficult to install. Those who have tried
to install latex2e will probably agree that this is not the case with
the new system. There is a certain problem that LaTeX is a system that
is suposed to ran on all kind of platforms and therefore does need an
installation procedure that is quite clever. There is still work going
on to make it even better but for most platforms the installation is
already trivial (it only takes some time).


> So, a wish list. For CTAN maintainers, the Latex3 team and systems package
> authors (eg emtex). For each of the following,
>
> 1) Standard fonts;

standard fonts is something we are working on for a long time. to be
able to use fonts in T1 encoding successfully we do need standard math
fonts, something that is under develoment but still will need some
time.

> 2) AMS fonts;

same answer, amsfonts the way they are now do not contribute to making
installations simpler.

> 3) Postscript fonts;

work on standard ps fonts is under way as well.

> Make it {\em really} simple to install each option. This means ONE encoding
> scheme as standard. Even a mere mention of different arrangements should be
> delimited as `for advanced users only'. Clear intructions as to where the
> Postscript sources are (even if included in package). This may do something
> about the frightening confusion of bundles in the archives.

i agree with you here, and this is one of the goals (i think) we have
nearly achieved with the current beta of 2e.

> In short, anyone competent with computers but with no specialist knowledge
> of TeX should be able to install Latex without fuss.

the new installation is more or less the sequences

initex unpack2e.ins
initex latex2e.ltx

done (on some systems initex is activated differently but this is
explained in the istall guide)

short of finding somebody to install the system for you i think this
is the best you can hope for, right?


frank