On 06/19/2018 10:47 AM, Pavel Sanda wrote:
Since we are doing changes in the installation workflow on Windows we should
consider to advocate TeX Live instead of MiKTeX on official LyX web page
and I have in mind two reasons:
1. increased document interoperability between architectures because both
Linux and Mac use preferably TeX Live (MacTeX is redistribution of
TeX Live if I read their pages right, CMIIW).
2. the instalation time of first install of MiKTeX (including triggered
online updates via configure) is *horrific*. As I wrote in some earlier
email, it took >1 hour to get LyX+MiKTeX working on clean Win machine
mainly because of MiKTeX package handling (and our reconfigure:).
Net TeXLive installer might be better in this regard. (?)
Before I will do my own experiments with Win TL 18, any windows users
around to comment on TeX Live advantages/drawbacks on windows, esp.
to points 1./2.
It's been quite a while since I switched from Windows to Linux, so my
experience with MiKTeX may be dated. When I first started using LyX (on
Windows), I'm not sure TeXLive had a Windows installer. At any rate, I
used MiKTeX for years and was very pleased with it. Personally, I prefer
the MiKTeX approach of installing and updating individual packages to
the TeXLive bundle approach, where I have to figure out which bundle
contains the one package I need, then install the entire bundle. I've
tried tlmgr for individual packages with some success, but even that
seems rougher to me than MiKTeX's installer.
Besides the disk footprint for TeXLive bundles, another consideration is
bandwidth. If a Windows user has a slow connection, or is using a
tethered phone (with a limited data plan), burning as little bandwidth
as possible to get the needed packages can be a consideration.
Overall, I favor keeping the LyX installer distribution-agnostic. We can
(and probably should) put links to TeXLive, MiKTeX and any other
relevant distributions.
As to the points above, for #1, LaTeX packages should behave the same on
all platforms (unless the dreaded Windows line endings somehow muck
things up), so I'm not sure why it would make a difference if I used
MiKTeX and my coauthor used TeXLive. For #2, I did not consider MiKTeX
installation times bad back when I was using it. I would typically
install just the base installer, then install individual packages when
they first became needed.
Paul
