In bug http://www.lyx.org/trac/ticket/10284 a conflict occurred:
Some years a go we added the feature to add packages which are required
by a module or layout file. This turned out to be a very valuable
feature because:
* the user gets a warning if a required package is not installed
* MiKTeX will automatically install all required packages (if the user
is online)
Jürgen removed now the dependencies from the linguistics module and want
to use the dependency handling of TeXLive. But not everybody has TeXLive
and our doc files need to be compilable in any way, not exclusively for
TeXLive users. However, even for TeXLive users on Windows they won't be
compilable.
I am opposed because my goal is to provide a convenient writing system
without forcing that users have to learn LaTeX. This is why I use MiKTeX
for the Windows installer. I am traveling a lot and there are still
many, many people out there who are not online. They go to an internet
spot to install programs. Thanks to the dependencies in the layout files
all LaTeX packages that a user might perhaps later use are installed
when LyX is installed.
Without the dependencies the user gets now a compilation error when
compiling the linguistics manual. I played around with TeXLive 2016 and
it does not install for example the required elocalloc package when the
user compiles the linguistics file. LaTeX runs for about a minute until
Window is stopping it! This is like a crash! Moreover the user does no
longer gets the info of what is wrong. With the dependencies he got a
warning that the package elocalloc is missing and that therefore the
compilation may fail. Then he had the change to inform the IT about this
now LaTeX is closed by Windows and he is lost. This is not acceptable
for me.
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Some word about TeXLive: it is still a nightmare to work with it. E.g. I
convinced my IT to install it on my PC as test. Since I have a normal
user account I cannot install a single package because only admins can
do. Moreover, I asked a colleague to install a package. Despite he is
the admin he failed because the lack of knowledge: there is no start
menu entry for TeXLive nor is there a way to know that the file
"tlmgr-gui.exe" needs to be executed and that explicit admin privileges
are necessary.
But my goal is that _everybody_ who can use Word can use LyX as well.
That is why I invested so much time to the Win installer. With it you
get a fully functional LyX and all necessary LaTeX package without the
need of anything like what a package is or even what LaTeX is. Just
click a few time on Next/OK and that's it. As long as you know the name
"miktex" you will find its package manager in the Win start menu - self
explanatory stuff for an admin.
regards Uwe
