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000664_kb@cs.umb.edu_Sat Jun 18 02:46:00 1994.msg
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Received: from terminus.cs.umb.edu by cs.umb.edu with SMTP id AA28237
(5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for <tex-k-exp@cs.umb.edu>); Sat, 18 Jun 1994 06:46:01 -0400
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(5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for tex-k); Sat, 18 Jun 1994 06:46:00 -0400
Date: Sat, 18 Jun 1994 06:46:00 -0400
From: "K. Berry" <kb@cs.umb.edu>
Message-Id: <199406181046.AA22441@terminus.cs.umb.edu>
To: tex-k@cs.umb.edu
Subject: Re: latex2e vs. latex209 inputs
There will _always_ be a need to support more than one version of,
e.g., LaTeX. When a new version comes out, and it turns out that this
version has some bugs, users will simply complain if they cannot use
the old version until the new version gets fixed. Thus, once or twice
each year, it will be necessary to have at least two versions of LaTeX
available.
Frank has an interesting point. But this is nothing specific to latex or
tex -- it's true for any software (emacs, gcc, xntpd,
whatever). Therefore, presumably system administrators have evolved ways
of dealing with it (or not :-) in general. There's a ``stable'' version
of the software and an ``experimental'' version or whatever.
The thing that's different about latex209 and latex2e is that there
might some reason for sites to support *both* versions
indefinitely, and therefore for TeX configuration to handle this
case. This was my question.
That doesn't invalidate Frank's point, though. The extra flexibility can
only help sysadmins, I suppose.
If more elaborate configuration is needed, another possibility would
be to read, say, `config.latex2e' by the `latex2e' executable.
(Somewhat similar to dvips.)
I hadn't thought of this, but it's a natural thing to do, given
dvips. It kinda seems like the config.<program> file would just redefine
one variable (TEXINPUTS), though, and having a bunch of such files
around would be more annoying than having a bunch of lines in one file?
(As an aside, config.<program> won't do cause it's not 8.3. I was
tentatively naming the file `texmf.cnf', so then there could be
`latex2e.cnf'.)
Thanks for all the comments.