Re: [AUCTeX] Re: Possibly broken Auctex by installing EmacsW32

[David Kastrup]

Brian Elmegaard <address@hidden> writes:

> David Kastrup <address@hidden> writes:
>
>> AUCTeX comes with an autoconf-based installer and a set of carefully
>> maintained installation instructions.  And there is an extra set of
>> instructions just for Windows users.
>
> I know and they require several steps to handle before running
> auctex (install msys and make it work, have path set correctly). 
>
> It is possible to do and auctex is great when you have it running, but
> to have it available easier would be a great help.
>
>> Package installation for AUCTeX is not hard work, and particularly not
>> if you already have a build environment capable of compiling Emacs
>> installed.
>
> It not just point-and-click as other installations are and as expected
> by windows users. I wouldn't really want to need to know if I have
> that environment.

So install the precompiled Emacs/AUCTeX bundle.

I don't see that we have a reasonable chance to stop the whining.
Obviously not even install-everything-with-one-click will work for
satisfying people.

>> What problems do you have with AUCTeX's installer?
>
> (0: Decide that cygwin is too hard)
> 1: Understand the mingw distribution and choose the msys to download. 
> 2: Install msys and answer the postinstall questions, e.g, something
> about /etc/fstab which I thought was a unix-concept.
> 3: Open the msys shell and try to do what is said in the windows
> installation instructions:
>           ./configure --prefix='C:/Program Files/Emacs' \
>             --with-texmf-dir='C:/Program Files/MiKTeX 2.5'
> 4: configure: error: (X)Emacs not found!. Aborting!
> 5: Give up.

INSTALL.windows contains very detailed step-by-step instructions,
including telling you what buttons to press in Windows in order to set
up your PATH properly.  Also telling you what options to pass to
configure in case you don't want to set your PATH properly.

The instructions have been carefully honed and polished over several
years with the feedback of quite a number of users with partly amazing
talents to get things wrong.

There is, however, no way that we will be able to cater for users who
neither want to install the precompiled bundle nor have an attention
span exceeding one or two sentences.

> Last time I got an auctex installed I did it through eshell by
> copy-pasting and trial-and-erroring the steps from the configure
> script.
>
> In addition I need to change my Path variable which might not be
> what I want.

INSTALL.windows explains

a) why it is a bad idea _not_ to change it,
b) how to go about changing it step by step,
c) what to do instead if you really refuse to change it.

So I just don't buy this.

> The solution I would prefer would be either of:
> - Double click on an installer

Get the precompiled Emacs/AUCTeX bundle.

> - Click on an install item in an emacs menu

There will not appear such an item magically.  XEmacs has a package
system that allows you to install the freshest version of outdated
software from a central server, from within an XEmacs menu.

> - run a elisp script from the eshell
> - run a elisp script from an open buffer in emacs

That's something that would have to be in Emacs.  But the solution
that Emacs mostly uses is just to come with everything installed, and
that's actually pretty much the only thing that will work with most
people.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum