[TxMt] Which LaTeX distribution

[Alain Matthes]

Le 4 oct. 07 à 08:29, Allan Odgaard a écrit :

> On 04/10/2007, at 00:01, Alain Matthes wrote:
>
>> [...]
>> yes I understand... and I recommended too for the beginners to  
>> follow the recommendations but  MacTeX is a large download (740M)  
>> perhaps in the help,  it's possible to speak about the method used  
>> by Oktay Acikalin : Basictex.dmg and mactex-additions.dmg
>
> I am not aware of that distro. So how big a DL is that? and is it  
> fully functional for basic stuff?
>
> Definitely if this is enough to get people started with LaTeX  
> (which that part of the bundle help is about) then we should  
> recommend it instead, unless it has some clear disadvantageous.
>
> Can you give the pros/cons of that distro, and maybe the pros of  
> choosing one of the larger distros.
>


Basic is a piece of the big cake : MacTeX

http://www.tug.org/mactex/faq/startingover.html

" If all else fails ....

For those who have been unsuccessful in downloading a working  
MacTeX.dmg,
Let me suggest that you get started as follows:

1) For these downloads, use Safari. We don't test with FireFox.
I'm not saying it is the cause of your trouble, but it is best to  
eliminate
all extraneous variables.

2) Go to <http://www.uoregon.edu/~koch/> and download BasicTeX.dmg.
This will install a small subset of TeX Live on your system, but the  
small subset
is remarkably capable, with TeX, LaTeX, pdfTeX, AMS-LaTeX, ConTeXt,  
XeTeX, etc.
All of my documents typeset fine using it. The advantage is that this  
is a
small download, about 39 MB, so this is a way to test without dealing  
with
large downloads. These distributions are still quite complete and  
serviceable.

The smaller download may cause fewer problems. Download gwTeX (321MB) or

  MacTeXAdditions.dmg (103MB).

Dick Koch
koch (AT) math.uoregon.edu
August 11, 2007

MacTeX-2007 requires Mac OS X 10.3 or higher."

It exists a good documentation : http://www.uoregon.edu/~koch/ 
BasicTeX.pdf

* BasicTeX (40.4 MB) is an experimental installation package for Mac  
OS X based on TeX
Live 2007. Unlike gwTeX and MacTeX, this package is deliberately  
small. Yet it contains
all of the standard tools needed to write TeX documents, including  
TeX, LaTeX, pdfTeX,
MetaFont, dvips, ConTeXt, MetaPost, and XeTeX.

* Thus it is a subset of the full TeX
Live with exactly the TeX Live directory structure and con guration  
scripts. So it would
be easy for users to upgrade to the full TeX Live over the network,  
and it would be easy
for the MacTeX group to o er small upgrade packages on their web site  
if users complain
of missing pieces.

*The BasicTeX package contains the original computer modern fonts (in  
Adobe type one format)
and new Latin Modern fonts by Boguslaw Jackowski and Janusz M.  
Nowacki for European
users. The creation of these very compact outline fonts is a  
relatively new development.
BasicTeX also contains the babel and inputenc packages for dealing  
with these European
characters. One of our fears has been that we would not be able to  
support European
users with such a small package, but the Latin Modern package makes  
this support possi-
ble.

* BasicTeX installs :

/usr/local/texlive/2007basic the actual TeX distribution
/usr/local/bin/texdist a symbolic link to /Library/TeX/.scripts/texdist
/usr/texbin a symbolic link to the active distribution's binaries
/Library/TeX the TeX distribution structure, mainly symbolic links
/Library/PreferencePanes contains the TeXDistPrefPane preference pane

and installs pdfsync and revtex because testers requested them, and  
we add the following
European hyphenation packages: hyphen-basque, hyphen-danish, hyphen- 
dutch, hyphen-
  nnish, hyphen-french, hyphen-german, hyphen-hungarian, hyphen- 
italian, hyphen-norwe
gian, hyphen-polish, hyphen-portuguese, hyphen-spanish, hyphen- 
swedish, and hyphen-
ukenglish.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 
%%%%%%%%%%%%%
The only problem is  : how to complete BasicTeX in a full MacTeX,  
properly.
I ask the question in the OSX TEX list today !

Regards Alain

PS

To finish about this problem about distribution what an "expert"  
wants to updates for example Ghostscript :

"Updates to the full MacTeX install packages will be available on an  
irregular basis on this page; these updates will be clearly marked  
with a new release date.
In between releases of the TeXLive DVD from TUG, updates to  
Ghostscript, ImageMagick, and the Font Utilities may be made using  
Gerben Wierda's i-Installer tool.

Updates to the other programs (b) may be done via their local websites."