Hi, Sebastian. How are you?
I'm writing to explore a bit with you about Linux, Ubuntu, and the
Synaptic<https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SynapticHowto>package
manager (=apt-get). I haven't got to the bottom of how Synaptic
interacts with its
repositories<https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Ubuntu>.
As far as I can see, apt-get/synaptic is a really slick and effective way of
keeping software distributions up to date. In many ways, it should be the
perfect tool for hooking Linux TeX distributions into TeXLive and CTAN. The
Synaptic repository has got TeXLive in it, but it's the 2007 edition.
There's quite a literature out there in various lists from people who
discover this, and then get into knots trying to install TL 2008 (now 09)
instead. Radhakrishnan wrote some instructions that help people a lot, but
even so, there are residual problems about the interaction between texlive
and synaptic. There's also a problem about the editor Kile, which only
works with the built-in synaptic texlive 2007 distribution. There are
workarounds<http://texblog.net/latex-archive/linux/kile-texlive-2008-equivs/>,
and one can get Kile working with TL 2008, but they are not for the
faint-hearted.
In short, for Linux users, there's a bit of a mess where TeX is concerned,
for those who would like to use Synaptic rather than plough their own
furrow.
The Synaptic package reports that the maintainer of the texlive
bundle<http://packages.ubuntu.com/karmic/tex/texlive>is the Ubuntu
Core Developers <
ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com>. Also mentioned are:
- Debian TeX Maintainers <http://lists.debian.org/debian-tex-maint/>
- Norbert Preining
- Frank Küster
though one is discouraged from contacting them. I see that Norbert is
currently active in the
debian-tex-maint<http://lists.debian.org/debian-tex-maint/2010/01/threads.html>list,
and also that he seems to live (partly?) in Vienna. I'm copying this
email to him. It looks, from that list, as if there's quite a lot going on
at the moment, including perhaps integration of TL 2009, but I can't find a
general statement of what's happening or what's planned. I'm copying this
email to Norbert, and since we both have Vienna addresses, perhaps Norbert
and I could even meet and talk?
Do you have any background on all this, Sebastian? Can you suggest any ways
in which the Synaptic repositories could be kept up to date with CTAN?As
a past happy user of MikTeX, I've been startled to see how much more
primitive things are in this area of Linux. And yet, all the tools are
seemingly in place for things to work nicely. What's missing? This
blog<http://texblog.net/latex-archive/news/tex-live-2009/>says that
everything is in fact happening, and TL2009 will appear in the
Synaptic repository soon, thanks to the work of Preining and Küster.
At base, I'm thinking that maybe I could get involved and help.
Best,
Dominik
Dr Dominik Wujastyk
Institut für Südasien-, Tibet- und Buddhismuskunde
Universität Wien
Spitalgasse 2-4, Hof 2, Eingang 2.1
A-1090 Vienna
Austria
--
long term email address: wujas...@gmail.com
PGP key: http://wujastyk.net/pgp.html
Sent from Vienna, Austria
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