RE: [AUCTeX] Install report: XEmacs and Windows XP

[Michael Forster]

Hi, 

> > 3) Where's the install documentation? README.CVS: run 
> >    autogen.sh. Ok, Standard. What else? RELEASE? No install
> >    documentation. Ah!, doc/install.texi and doc/wininstall.texi.
> 
> Uh, running ./autogen.sh should have given you INSTALL and README.
> And the very first paragraph of README.CVS says [...]

You are right. This was my fault. I was too hasty. Actually, I think, the text
in README.CVS is sufficient. If I hadn't found winistall.texi, I'd probably
re-read README.CVS. No problem here.

In the released version INSTALL.windows will be present without running
autogen.sh, right?


> > 5) autogen.sh... Error:
> > 
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -------------
> > makeinfo preview-latex.texi
> > ' in @synindex.exi:11: Unknown index `vr' and/or `cp
> > ' in @synindex.exi:12: Unknown index `ky' and/or `cp
> > ' in @synindex.exi:13: Unknown index `fn' and/or `cp
> > /cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/mforster/My
> > Documents/Scratch/auctex/preview/
> > doc//preview-dtxdoc.texi:474: Misplaced {.
> > /cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/mforster/My
> > Documents/Scratch/auctex/preview/
> > doc//preview-dtxdoc.texi:474: Misplaced }.
> > /cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/mforster/My
> > Documents/Scratch/auctex/preview/
> > doc//preview-dtxdoc.texi:475: Misplaced {.
> > /cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/mforster/My
> > Documents/Scratch/auctex/preview/
> > doc//preview-dtxdoc.texi:475: Misplaced }.
> > /cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/mforster/My
> > Documents/Scratch/auctex/preview/
> >   style file' (perhaps incorrect sectioning?).to 
> > nonexistent node `The LaTeX
> > makeinfo: Removing output file `/cygdrive/c/Documents and
> > Settings/mforster/My D
> > ocuments/Scratch/auctex/preview/doc/preview-latex.info' due 
> > to errors;
> > use --force to preserve.
> > make: [preview-latex.info] Error 1 (ignored)
> 
> Rats.  The problem is that the "configure" script will check for
> outdated makeinfo, and will after testing install some fallback macros
> to get from there.  But autogen.sh can't do those checks, so it
> requires a recent makeinfo.  I don't see an easy way around that if
> you start from CVS.
> 
> What date is your cygwin?

One month at most. And I checked right now: There are no relevant updates. 

    $ makeinfo --version
    makeinfo (GNU texinfo) 4.8

Is that too old? I know nothing about texinfo, but I suspect a different
problem.  Makeinfo actually chokes on the following two lines in
preview/preview-dtxdoc.texi:

    \DescribeMacro{\PreviewOpen}
    \DescribeMacro{\PreviewClose}

This looks different than other such lines in the file. Could it be line 65 in
preview-dtxdoc.pl?

    if (s/\\DescribeMacro\{(.*?)\}[ \n]/address@hidden $1\n/) {

Maybe the [ \n] matches on unix, but not on Windows? Note that cvs translates
line endings if the file is checked in as ASCII.


> > Now it works. Ah! Now there's also the INSTALL.windows 
> > file. Fine! But the line breaks are screwed up:
>
> Wow.  WHAT version is your makeinfo?  This seems really ancient.  Or
> could it be a line end character artifact?

The version is 4.8. I don't know anything about makeinfo, so its difficult for
me to check for a line ending problem.


> > Hm, I'll stay with wininstall.texi. Seems to be the same, anyways.
> >
> > 6) Now, how do I call configure? I'll probably need --prefix? What's
> >    the correct path for prefix? Probably "C:\Program
> >    Files\XEmacs". wininstall.texi said to use the C: syntax with
> >    forward slashes and to avoid spaces. I try to be clever here and
> >    use
> >
> >      ./configure --prefix=C:/Progra~1/XEmacs
> >
> > XEmacs package directory not found. Hm. configure could 
> > have been more clever.
> 
> Problem is that package directories are located under the prefix, and
> your package directories inside of XEmacs don't know anything about
> C:/Progra~1/XEmacs.  You'd need to have specified, probably,
> --prefix="C:\Program Files\XEmacs" if that is the "canonical"
> representation within XEmacs.
> 
> I have to say that I am somewhat at a loss how to deal sensibly with
> that: under Windows there are dozens of ways of specifying a directory
> (case changes alone make for a lot of fun).

I think it is not necessary that all variations work as long one variation does
and as long as the "correct" variation is documented in the install
documentation. Now it says not to use spaces and backslashes. 


> >      GS="C:/Progra~1/Ghostscript/gs8.50/bin/gswin32.exe" \
> >      ./configure \
> >        --prefix=C:/Progra~1/XEmacs \
> >        --with-packagedir=C:/Progra~1/XEmacs/xemacs-packages
> >
> > 
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -------------
> > checking for latex... 
> > /cygdrive/c/Progra~1/MikTeX/texmf/miktex/bin/latex
> > checking for
> > pdflatex... /cygdrive/c/Progra~1/MikTeX/texmf/miktex/bin/pdflatex
> > checking for tex... /cygdrive/c/Progra~1/MikTeX/texmf/miktex/bin/tex
> > checking for prefix from kpsepath... cat: ./conftest-3108: No such
> > file or direc
> > tory
> > ""
> > checking for TDS-compliant directory... ./configure: line 
> > 1: kpsepath:
> > command n
> > ot found
> > no
> > checking for TeX directory hierarchy... no
> > checking for TeX input directory... no
> > configure: error: Cannot find the texmf directory!
> > Please use --with-texmf-dir=dir to specify where the 
> > preview tex files go
> > configure: error: /bin/bash './configure' failed for preview
> > 
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -------------
> >
> > Hm tex is found and is not found?? 

I think, my point here was not clear enough. I was wondering, why configure
first says that the executables are found and then says, it doesn't know about
the texmf directory. Seems that configure wants to call kpsepath. I don't have
such a program installed. But there is a kpsewhich in my path. Couldn't that be
used? But again: I am an amateur here...


> > Again some info in preview/INSTALL.windows
> 
> I am in the process of folding the installation information for
> preview-latex into AUCTeX, so this searching across directories for
> the information will stop.  Also, the released tarball already
> contains the results of running autogen.sh.  Probably README.CVS
> should be more explicitly warn from running autogen.sh unless you
> really, really, have checked out a CVS copy.

Actually: if I were you, I wouldn't ship README.CVS and autogen.sh in the
released version. 


> > Type "make" at the prompt to build preview.
> > ./configure: line 3858: cd: /cygdrive/c/Documents: No such file or
> > directory
> 
> Uh oh.  Have to check how this comes about.  Let me guess:  you have
> something like "c:\Documents and whatever" as a directory?  How is
> that related to Emacs/TeX?

I had the auctex sources in the directory

    C:\Documents and Settings\mforster\My Documents\Scratch\auctex


> > make[2]: /cygdrive/c/Progra\~1/MikTeX/texmf/miktex/bin/tex: Command
> > not found
> 
> Let me guess: make is not from Cygwin?

It is from cygwin:

    $ which make
    /usr/bin/make

I think it's the only make I have installed.


> > Hm. It doesn't seem to like my ~1 notation... Let's try it 
> > differently
> >
> >      GS="C:/Program Files/Ghostscript/gs8.50/bin/gswin32.exe" \
> >      ./configure \
> >        --prefix=C:/Program\ Files/XEmacs \
> >        --with-packagedir=C:/Program\ Files/XEmacs/xemacs-packages \
> >        --with-texmf-dir=C:/Program\ Files/MikTeX/texmf
> >      make
> >
> > Same error! What? From where does configure put up the ~1??? Ah! My
> > Path.
> 
> Uh, you have ~something in your PATH?

Yes. There are a lot of programs that have problems with spaces. The ~1
notation has problems with less programs. Actually, this is the first time I
have problems with it.

I will never understand why Microsoft uses "Program Files" instead of
"Programs". I used to have a german Windows installed. This was much easier
with "C:\Programme\".


> > I didn't want to spend more time and just executed the tex calls by
> > hand.
> 
> Uh oh.
> 
> >      cd preview/latex
> >      tex '\nonstopmode \input bootstrap.ins'
> >      tex '\nonstopmode \input preview-mk.ins'
> >      latex '\nonstopmode \input preview.drv'
> >      pdflatex '\nonstopmode
> >      \AtBeginDocument{\OnlyDescription}\input{preview.drv}'
> >      cd ../..
> >      make
> >
> > Ah! It worked!
> 
> As long as you are in a Bourne shell...  command.com would complain
> about the quoting style.

Yes. It was a bash. I never use command.com and I never tried quoting in
cmd.exe. 


> > 10) Try preview: C-c C-p C-d, Cache preamble: y, "No such file or
> >     directory gs". Customize the GS command.
> 
> What is the content of your preview-latex.el?

Sorry, I don't have it here any more. There were some more problems with the
new auctex, so I reinstalled the old one. I didn't have enough time to look
into it. If you want me to, I can do the install, again.

BTW: has the fill-paragraph functionality changed? The new version did not
insert any line breaks at all and put whole paragraphs on one line. (I know
that this isn't a very detailed question/bug report, but I didn't have the
time)


> > Summary of things, I'd like to see fixed:
> >
> > a) Handling of spaces in path names is subomptimal. 
> 
> C:\Program Files _is_ supposed to work if you quote it correctly.  I
> have to think about the ~1 thing: making _that_ work might actually be
> harder.

O.k. Then I suggest to change the install documentation. It explicitely
discourages to use backslashes and spaces. This was the main reason, why I
tried to use the "C:/Progra~1" syntax.


> > b) Fix compile error in preview-latex.texi
> 
> Does it occur only with autogen.sh?  Namely, if you, say, delete
> preview-latex.info and then just use "cd preview/doc;make
> preview-latex.info" does it work then?  

No, it doesn't. Same error. See comment above.


> > c) Fix screwed line breaks in INSTALL.windows
> 
> INSTALL.windows will be included in the release, so makeinfo will not
> need to regenerate it.  Nevertheless, we would want to have this work
> right _IF_ people use a recent version of makeinfo.  What is the
> output of
> 
> makeinfo --version

    $ makeinfo --version
    makeinfo (GNU texinfo) 4.8


> Many thanks for your feedback!  We are trying our best to get this to
> work as well as possible, but without actual testers, there are
> obviously a lot of oversights, or things where we just don't manage to
> think like the users.

I am glad to help and volunteer as a regular tester. I won't have time to
follow the mailing lists closely, but you could tell me when there are
significant changes, or when the release is near. Then I could do another try,
if you want me to.

Mike