From: jacob@ipc1.rrzn.uni-hannover.de (Ruediger Jacob, SWL)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: File structure for TeX and friends: questio
Date: 6 Jan 93 13:46:31 GMT
Reply-To: jacob@ipc1.rrzn.uni-hannover.de
Organization: Universitaet Hannover

In article 6205@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz, hafner@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz (Dr. Paul R Hafner) writes:
>
>I am reasonably well acquainted with a traditional setup of TeX in
>/usr/local/lib/tex etc. In planning an update of TeX, some questions arose
>for which I invite comment.
>
>* Overall system philosophy *

[ ... some text about the file structure as ./<package>/<current_version>/ ]

>* TeX considerations *
>
>   TeX, mf, bibtex and friends seem to be so totally interwoven that I have
>   doubts that it makes sense to split them completely into 3 such setups:
>   .../TeX/current/... , .../MetaFont/current/... , .../BibTex/current/...
>   (but correct me if you think I am wrong on this point!). And exactly 
>   where would dvips fit into it?

I disagree with your opinion that TeX and Metafont are totally interwoven.
They could be separated easily except the font directory wich both of them
use. This separation is done already in the standard Makefile and ./lib/site.h
of the web2c distribution.

Also the other TeX friends could be separated into own directory trees. The
question is if this usefull. Most of them have only one binary file and sometimes
some configuration, macro or style files. I think it is more usefull having
them in the normal TeX directory. For an easier TeX administration you can 
create a hierachical texinput directory and use symbolic links.

example:
     .../tex/latex/sty
                   general
                   ...
             macros/...
                    latex --> ../latex/sty

>   Somewhat independent of the general setup is the question for a
>   rational setup of fonts (and inputs). Is it worth structuring 
>   .../TeX/current/lib/fonts any deeper than into tfm, pk, vf? e.g. to
>   accommodate entire groups of fonts in diretories of their own (the same
>   qustion is also relevant for TeX and mf inputs).
>
>   Are the hassles of insisting on a logical structure too great to make
>   the exercise worthwile?

The only disadvantage is the lost of performance. When you have such a
structure TeX have to search through all subdirectories for the preloaded
fonts and the style or macro files.

I've installed such a structure for all necessary directories (fonts, texinput,
mfinput, bibstyles etc.) and its easy for administration as discribed above.

>Thanks in advance,
>
>Paul
>

Greetings,
         R"udiger

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R"udiger Jacob                 Lehrgebiet Rechnernetze und Verteilte Systeme
                                                       Universit"at Hannover 
phone.: +49-511-762-3681
e-mail: jacob@ipc1.rrzn.uni-hannover.de              Schlo"swender Stra"se 5
        jacob@rvs.uni-hannover.de                    D-3000 Hannover
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disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are my own. 
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