Message-ID:  <009CF08A.EA78CA00.166@ROSE.IPM.AC.IR>
Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project
              <LATEX-L@URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE>
Date:         Tue, 10 Nov 1998 23:32:59 +0330
From: Roozbeh Pournader <rpnader@VAX.IPM.AC.IR>
Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project
              <LATEX-L@URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE>
To: Multiple recipients of list LATEX-L
              <LATEX-L@URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE>
Subject:      Re: What is "base" LaTeX
Status: R

Phillip Helbig wrote:

> First, not everyone uses tetex or even unix.  Second, `getting it from
> CTAN' is, for a normal `individual user', too much work.  The typical
> user doesn't even know what CTAN is.  Even if he does, is he familiar
> with getting stuff from it?  As Joe User he can't install it system
> wide, so several people could have their own, perhaps inconsistent
> copies.  Even if he knows the ropes and/or is the system manager,
> installing several packages just to format one document might be too
> much.

I agree very much. I make examples from our "far from technology"
country. In our user list of FarsiTeX (who are about 300-400),
almost everyone has Internet access, and almost 50% are computer
hackers/programmers. But the people who know CTAN are about 15,
and the people who have used it at least one are about 8.
From these 8, not all can install a package without others help,
and in these "others", only one person is not an implementation team
member!

(Haahaa! I can count the users here! Which one of you can do the same
in his country? ;)

The mass will use any package we provide. METAPOST (sorry, not a LaTeX
package!) is not in the FarsiTeX distribution (since the great manager
doesn't like it) then no one uses METAPOST in Iran except
me and few friends.

(There are two other TeX distributions in Iran that are commercial
and very expensive, and it follows that the situation is worse there.)

--Roozbeh