[tex-live] Is tlmgr 2008 now completely unusable?

[George N. White III]

On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 10:01 AM, Philip TAYLOR (Ret'd)
<P.Taylor at rhul.ac.uk> wrote:
>
>
> B Wooster wrote:
>
>> This seems like a topic that was well known to texlive users, but
>> casual users would find it very hard to find the info - web searches
>> as well as mail archive searches did not easily yield correct
>> information.

A useful feature in tlmgr would be a "message of the day"
capability, which could be used for things like:

"Massive changes were applied on <date> -- expect many
updates!"

or

"The last update to TL<version> was made on <date>.  There
will be no further updates.  TL<version_next> is now available
<here>."

> Perhaps one further suggestion : When TL 2xxx is nearing
> end-of-life, note which of its final iterations is "best"
> (in terms of latest functionality v. new bugs) and burn
> that to DVD, then lodge the DVD with an organisation
> (perhaps the TUG Office) that is willing, for a small
> fee, to make further copies of that DVD and to post
> them to anyone needing to update a TL 2xxx kit beyond
> its "sell-by" date.

I like this.

If the DVD image is on a server people without internet
can arrange to get someone with internet access to burn
a DVD.   For international transactions, "small fee" is
impossible due to the large fee a bank will ask to process
the money.   I think there are businesses that offer this
service in parts of the world where internet access is
limited -- better that the profit goes to a local business
than the international banks.  Also, people who purchase
a DVD often expect support to be included, so it is not
always as easy as simply putting a DVD into an envelope.



-- 
George N. White III <aa056 at chebucto.ns.ca>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia