On Thu, May 18, 2000 at 03:23:30PM -0400, Andrew Brown wrote:
> i've decide to install tex.  i think i remember how to use it, and if
> i can i'll be very pleased, since it will enable me to send dvi files
> back to the people that have been sending me pdf files and word or
> excel documents.  i can't read that, you can't read this.

  Gee, doesn't *everybody* use word these days?

> the machine i wanna install it on has no x.  never had, never needed
> it.  do i really need to install x to use tex?  or is there some other
> way around this?

  I believe the only parts of TeX that use X are the character-previewing
feature of metafont (apparently in mfw) and xdvi.  So, it *might* be
sufficient to tell the pkg not to USE_X11, and to modify the teTeX-bin
Makefile to include the CONFIGURE_ARGS: --without-x11 --without-oxdvik
--without-xdvik and to omit --with-x11.

  Of course, you might want to view your output, and it's awfully hard to
figure out what your document looks like by reading the output of dvitype :-).