Re: TeX Live

[Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net>]

Pierre Neidhardt <mail@ambrevar.xyz> writes:

> Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> writes:
>
>> For the specific usability issue you mention (what’s the right package
>> to install when one wants tables?), I think we should add a section in
>> the manual, as has been discussed before.
>
> No package, this is default LaTeX.

I think this is one and the same thing.  When I wrote the first modular
package definitions I just looked at the LaTeX base packages, tried to
build them, failed, added package definitions to address the failure,
and repeated until things wouldn’t fail any more.

This means that the set of packages that gives us a “default LaTeX”
experience are incomplete.

I suggest taking a closer look at the ingredients of texlive-latex-base.
Many of the packages that contribute to it may actually be woefully
incomplete.  For each of the packages we should compare the expected
output (according to the texlive database) with the actual output.  Some
cases may be a little tricky, but overall I think the problem is not too
difficult to solve with systematic work.

With some luck I may be able to take a look at this next week, but I’d
be happy if someone with a clear head took the lead instead.

--
Ricardo