Re: texlive organization on netbsd

[Mayuresh <mayuresh%acm.org@localhost>]

On Tue, Jun 12, 2018 at 10:35:50AM -0400, Cág wrote:
> If there's a TeX package missing, it wouldn't be hard to write a
> Makefile for it: pkgsrc already has a framework to deal with TeX
> packages, print/texlive/package.mk. Take a look at, for example,
> tex-geometry Makefile -- it's 15 lines long.

I understand and appreciate this point. But please bear with me like you
have so far, as I might be repeating some points.

- There are close to 5000 packages right now and it will only keep
  growing. Assuming pkgsrc is widely used (and we all would love to see
  that) some user or the other at some point of time or the other would
  require any of them. Shall we be spending effort on mapping packages
  that are that large in number? (Even factoring in the packages are
  clubbed when mapping to pkgsrc.)

- I ack'ed the ease of creation of package. But that's not all. Getting it
  into pkgsrc is not as automatic. It will take its own course. There
  will be different views on granularity of the package etc. (and for good
  reason) but it will add to latency of getting a package.

  A document preparer would be looking for a quick solution. As it is,
  sometimes choosing a package is a matter of trial and error. One may
  not get the desired results and may want to try alternative packages
  before choosing one. Creating package would be already a digression from
  his work. Wonder whether such user would like the added inertia of
  creating packages and waiting for the commits etc.

- Further it's not merely a matter of creating. It also requires upkeep as
  things change upstream. And upkeep for that large package count means a
  lot of ongoing effort.

*
* Even if you disagree with all the points, please try and share your
* views on at least the following one:
*

- Importantly, we are talking about a general problem with the likes of
  texlive, python, R, nodejs and may be more. We have already made a
  different call in other places - at least python and nodejs.

  Wonder why the thought process for texlive is alone different from that
  of, for example, python and nodejs.

Mayuresh