----- Original Message -----
From: "Angus Leeming" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <lyx-users@lists.lyx.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2005 1:03 AM
Subject: Re: There's Something About Textclass.lst [WinXP, installing into]
"The installer searches the Registry in various ways in order to find the
whereabouts of sh.exe, gswinc.exe, python.exe, etc. It's blindingly
obvious that it should first ascertain whether these things are already
in the PATH. Never mind ;-)"
Just in case you think I'm being rude in your direction, I'm not. The
"blindingly obvious" bit was aimed at myself.
SH: I did not say that the LyX installer could not search the PATH.
I said that this didn't contribute any information that couldn't be
acquired by other means. Since the PATH can contain duplicated
and non-existent entities it can't confirm reports from other means.
I can't parse this. The PATH doesn't confirm or deny anything. My PATH
here
on a linux machine is
That is what I said. Searching the PATH doesn't deny or confirm anything.
You were the one who wrote: "It's blindingly obvious that it should first
ascertain whether these things are already in the PATH."
My reply says no it is not blindingly obvious, _because_ the PATH won't
confirm or deny anything. Win PATH doesn't have the string that LyX
adds to modify its own copy of the PATH. It is this string that keeps
getting multiplied from 80 characters to 200+ characters.
I'm saying that you don't need to ascertain (if you mean search) the
Win PATH; even if the Win PATH is contained in the LyX PATH,
the segment which needs to be checked is the LyX contributed portion.
/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/home/angus/bin
meaning that "execvp" ("spawnvp" on Windows) will look only in these 5
directories when searching for the external application:
Ok, I'm not sure I see that. The LyX installer provides a default choice
of C:\Miktex\texmf\miktex\bin or C:\texmf\miktex\bin
However, I think you mean the LyX installer doesn't search the
whole hard drive looking for latex.exe or python.exe, although the
default becomes Python23 or Python24 depending on what I have installed.
This area of discussion is not critical to the focus on this disagreement.
When I say PATH, I mean the Windows Path Environment Variable.
When I wrote: "it was already handled in the Windows path." After
you corrected me and I adopted a more rigorous reference. Angus wrote:
">> Formally, that's the PATH environment variable. To be honest, I don't
think that I check the contents of this variable when generating the
contents of \path_prefix. Clearly I should have
"Think of both the registry and the PATH environment variable as simply
*hints* of where to find a given executable. The LyX installer uses the
registry to generate the \path_prefix string which, in turn, is used by a
lyx.exe process to modify its local copy of the PATH environment variable.
Thus, we use the lyxrc.defaults \path_prefix string to modify the local
copy of the PATH environment variable available to the LyX process."
I've just installed LyX without LyX or any helper applications in
the Windows PATH environment variable. And it works. So can
you tell me why it is "blindingly obvious" that LyX should first
ascertain that these things are already in the PATH?
<shrug>Whether you like it or not, these apps can be found in LyX's copy
of
the PATH, either from the global PATH or from the \path_prefix variable.
</shrug>
I understood what you wrote before. That is why I clearly specified,
****"Windows PATH environment variable"******
LyX's modified copy of the PATH (Windows environment variable)
is not the same as Win PATH. Win PATH will not contain the Msys
Python etc directory paths, unless a user manually install them.
The programs don't add themselves to the Win PATH nor does the
LyX installer add them to Win PATH. Even if the LyX installer
adds the default directories found during the install, plus the user
specified directories during the install, they are not added to Win PATH,
but to a new entity, LyX PATH which contains Win Path plus what
LyX install contributes. I'm not nitpicking, as I see it nothing needs to
be ascertained from Win PATH, because the strings that are getting
duplicated repeatedly, that wind up in lyxrc.defaults or configure or
\path_prefix are all contained in the newer entity LyX PATH.
And it is just the prepended part of LyX's contribution to LyX PATH
that is causing the problem. That needs to be compared to the output
generated in configure etc. That specific segment doesn't even exist
in Win PATH in order to run a comparison (except for the rare times
that the user happens to previously manually write to Win PATH the
exact results which the LyX installer will later determine and produce.
It's blindingly
obvious that it should first ascertain whether these things are already
in the PATH. Never mind ;-)"
When you write PATH, you've already created the clarification that
Windows Path Environment Variable is meant. That very likely does
not contain the string that will later (so not "first") be written to
LyX PATH. It is just those five or six entries later during the install
(msys,python, Imagemagic, texmf, ghostscript (perl)) that are
being generated over and over again. Those aren't even in Win PATH
most likely. So what is _blindingly obvious_ that they should _first_
be ascertained (meaning compared not searched) in Win PATH
(and Lyx hasn't created the string yet) which is what PATH stands for?
"It is not that I disagree with his explanation; it is that his
explanation is not consistent with his initial claim, nor does it support
that claim." [SH: I mean you never responded to my objection about refer-
ing to PATH when you most likely should mean LyX's modified PATH.]
Well, I've done my best. I'm giving up now.
Me too. Never mind ;-)
I find that perplexing and a nice troubleshooting challenge.
I have discovered that in both LyX1.3.7pre4&5 that when I install
to C:\program files\lyx (on my machine that doesn't finish the install
and I have to run sh.exe configure) that LyX's File-->import
doesn't have the Latex and NoWeb options. But if I install to
C:\Lyx, then both those options then appear as choices. Perhaps
to be expected the LyX folders under Application data are smaller
for the C:\program files\lyx install than the C:\LyX install.
I was thinking about drinking and grandiose behavior and arrived at:
One must first realize his limitations before one can realize his potential,
Stephen
