On 9/9/2018 4:15 AM, Peter Taylor wrote:
Hi,

I have upgraded MiKTeX relatively recently – I don’t want to upgrade again if I 
don’t have to upgrade – so please could you update your webpage which says:

(start quote)

Due to a bug in MiKTeX, installation of LyX 2.3.0 can sometimes cause the 
MiKTeX installation to be corrupted. (See 
https://github.com/MiKTeX/miktex/issues/82.) If you run into problems, the 
solution will be to uninstall MiKTeX and then re-install.

We highly recommend that MiKTeX users update to the latest version before 
installing LyX 2.3.0. If you have any questions about how to update MiKTeX, you 
can email lyx-users@lists.lyx.org<mailto:lyx-users@lists.lyx.org> for help. 
(You do not need to be subscribed to the mailing list to do so, but you may 
wish to do that anyway. See this page<https://www.lyx.org/MailingLists#toc2> 
for information on subscribing.)
(end quote)

This information does not mention specific versions – just says “latest version 
of MiKTeX”. My MiKTeX console window tells me it is version 2.9.6751.

I am actually using another TeX editor which works fine for me but I want to 
collaborate with a colleague and I heard that LyX might be an easier editor for 
him to use on shared documents. Before doing that I want to check that LyX is 
something I can recommend to him.

However seeing this message on your website has made me reluctant to try out 
LyX in case my MiKTeX installation gets corrupted.

Regards,
Peter


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Hello,

I am trying to follow the conversation(s) regarding the MikTeX issues. I have 
just observed from the MikTeX web page that MikTeX has gone through some major 
changes. I do not know exactly when these changes occurred, so some of them may 
have been there for a while. The major changes are:

  *   A completely new GUI have been implemented.
  *   MikTeX was originally for Windows. Now it can be installed on Mac and 
Linux.
  *   It can be rollout to a group of computers.
  *   It an be installed through a  Docker container.
  *   The concept of "scalable TeX (minimalist TeX, install-on-the-fly TeX)" 
has been introduced.
  *   May be some other changes...

This suggests that the author of MikTeX is putting a big effort into it and 
changes it constantly. This is quite opposite of what conventional TeX systems 
does (at least this is what I have been observing). Systems like TeXLive 
publish major versions with larger periods of time and do not update the system 
in a continuous manner, which provides robustness to the TeX system and avoids 
surprises. Further, MikTeX is more prone to failures and issues due to this 
reason.

Just by considering all these changes to MikTeX, I would say it is quite normal 
for LyX users having issues with MikTeX all the time since it changes, being 
updated, modified frequently. It would be really difficult for LyX developers 
to follow all these changes and provide a LyX setup that is compatible with 
these changes.

Particularly, the concept of minimalist TeX may be an issue. When I installed 
the latest version of LyX, I observed that MikTeX was updating some packages 
online. So, the MikTeX was updating itself from within the LyX installation. 
This sort of installation approach may be a problem for LyX if a problem occurs 
with the MikTeX update during the LyX installation. Luckily, I did not have 
issues in my case, since I keep the full TeX system on my computer (about 6 
GB), even tough MikTeX switched to a minimalist version without telling me.

In conclusion, It would be more surprise-free to use a more stable and 
"not-constantly-being-updated" TeX system -such as TeXLive- along with LyX 
rather than MikTeX. Otherwise there should be another Lyx-specific-minimalist 
MikTeX system available on the PC of the user not to have major issuesö and the 
user should not update MikTeX frequently.

I hope my observations are not fundamentally flawed as I am not a programmer 
person.

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