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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