> Sent: Friday, June 25, 2021 at 5:57 PM > From: "Eli Zaretskii" <e...@gnu.org> > To: "Christopher Dimech" <dim...@gmx.com> > Cc: gavinsmith0...@gmail.com, help-texinfo@gnu.org > Subject: Re: Using a macro makes pdfetex quits and exits with bad status > > > From: Christopher Dimech <dim...@gmx.com> > > Cc: gavinsmith0...@gmail.com, help-texinfo@gnu.org > > Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2021 21:42:10 +0200 > > > > It would be a great improvement to have a standard on how we can test > > newer versions of texinfo without affecting the stable version we normally > > use. It makes it very difficult for me to help out as a tester. > > Your suggestion of help is appreciated, but help-texinfo is not about > that. It's about helping _users_ of Texinfo in using the _released_ > versions.
Could take two or more years for a release version. Would have to find some other way of scrutinising texinfo, so as not to look as a demanding user. > > > > Why can't I have multiple versions of the program and run the ones I > > > > want? > > > > > > You can, but you should know very well what you are doing, and how the > > > different parts, in particular Texinfo and TeX, work together and what > > > each one of them expects to find where. If you don't know these > > > details, my best recommendation is not to do that, as you will be > > > facing an uphill battle. > > > > I am quite sure you have more experience to be able to tell us exactly > > how to set things up in the case of development versions. > > Actually, no. My help in testing development versions is limited to > running the extensive test suite. If Gavin wants me to test specific > aspects, he gives precise instructions and I follow them. Otherwise, > I always install the new version replacing the old one. > > I only know a little about the internals because in some distant past > I ported TeX/Web2C to a non-Posix platform, that's all. Based on that > vague memory, I can tell you that you would need to futz with > TEXINPUTS, but that's about all I can tell. > > Again, using such a dual installation is not recommended unless you > have a lot of free time and don't need to actually do something useful > with Texinfo except tinker with it. Don't have free time, but waste a lot of time tinkering. Most of my problems are not really my problems though. > > Am I the only one who gets in all this trouble, I ask ? > > Most probably, you are one of a very few. > > > > Why not simply install the development version instead the one you > > > have already? It will definitely be simpler to set up and use than > > > what you are going through. > > > > So I forget about using prefix in configure? Is that what you are saying? > > I would certainly require additional systems in case development versions > > screw my working setup. > > First, the development version is quite stable at this point: Gavin > has already released 2 pretest versions. And Texinfo is stable in > general, even in early stages of development of the next release, > because the language is fairly complete, and so changes are relatively > minor. > > And if worse comes to worst, there's always "make uninstall". > > So my best advice is simply configure and install the snapshot as if > it were a released version, yes. Would need to provide more detailed information so others can figure out where things could be located for Tex. Saying "make TEXMF=/your/texmf install-tex" is not detailed enough to make sure the texinfo installation works. Got to see the installation and setup for tex and provide information to the user. Otherwise everything becomes a mystery.