4 ms·

It's 5GB because it includes every single extendable package too, as well as their documentation (in PDF format, of course). There's a healthy TeX package ecos

by nanna 8y ago

It's 5GB because it includes every single extendable package too, as well as their documentation (in PDF format, of course). There's a healthy TeX package ecosystem [0] Windows users have the option of installing via MiKTeX instead of TeXLive, the benefit being that MiKTeX has a package management system which installs the base packages at start and then automatically downloads the others as and when they are needed. [1] Not sure if that's possible in other OS'? [0] https://www.ctan.org/ https://www.ctan.org/ [1] https://miktex.org/ https://miktex.org/

sjamaan 8y ago
There used to be teTeX (https://www.tug.org/tetex/ https://www.tug.org/tetex/) which allowed installing packages separately, but that's no longer maintained. I think KerTeX (http://www.kergis.com/en/kertex.html http://www.kergis.com/en/kertex.html) now allows a similar style of pick-and-choose package installation, but it doesn't support a lot of packages (yet?).
- Tomte 8y ago
  If you select "custom" instead of "full" when installing TeX Live, you can select packages case by case.
pletnes 8y ago
Both texlive and miktex allow selectively installing some packages only. AFAIK the difference is that miktex will show a popup saying «do you want to install foopackage?» when you try to compile a document which uses foopackage, and you don’t have foopackage on your system. Kinda like on ubuntu, you get «you can install this command by running apt-get install foopackage».
- nanna 8y ago
  But isn't that quite a big difference? MiKTeX will actively download and install the extra package for you there and then, whereas with TeXLive you'll need to rerun the installer (?) or download the packages from CTAN? I must admit I speak as a Linux user who's installed TeX on Windows machines, but not really gone into detail myself, so please correct me if I'm wrong.
  - maxnoe 8y ago
    You just run tlmgr install <package>
    - nanna 8y ago
      Whaaaa... I had no idea. Thank you!
  - pletnes 8y ago
    It’s a big difference, but the parent post indicated that partial installation was not possible at all. At least that was my understanding.
mehrdadn 8y ago
Do NOT install MiKTeX unless you enjoy finding new ways to literally waste your time. Yes, it's a tad bit more user friendly, but it's also literally ~twice as slow as TeXLive. I really wish people gave this heads up when mentioning it... it should be a criminal offense not to! I wasted so much of my life just waiting for it to compile and I only found out TeXLive was so much faster when it was years too late.

by nanna 8y ago

sjamaan 8y ago

There used to be teTeX (https://www.tug.org/tetex/ https://www.tug.org/tetex/) which allowed installing packages separately, but that's no longer maintained. I think KerTeX (http://www.kergis.com/en/kertex.html http://www.kergis.com/en/kertex.html) now allows a similar style of pick-and-choose package installation, but it doesn't support a lot of packages (yet?).

Tomte 8y ago
If you select "custom" instead of "full" when installing TeX Live, you can select packages case by case.

pletnes 8y ago

Both texlive and miktex allow selectively installing some packages only. AFAIK the difference is that miktex will show a popup saying «do you want to install foopackage?» when you try to compile a document which uses foopackage, and you don’t have foopackage on your system. Kinda like on ubuntu, you get «you can install this command by running apt-get install foopackage».

nanna 8y ago
But isn't that quite a big difference? MiKTeX will actively download and install the extra package for you there and then, whereas with TeXLive you'll need to rerun the installer (?) or download the packages from CTAN? I must admit I speak as a Linux user who's installed TeX on Windows machines, but not really gone into detail myself, so please correct me if I'm wrong.
- maxnoe 8y ago
  You just run tlmgr install <package>
  - nanna 8y ago
    Whaaaa... I had no idea. Thank you!
- pletnes 8y ago
  It’s a big difference, but the parent post indicated that partial installation was not possible at all. At least that was my understanding.

mehrdadn 8y ago

Do NOT install MiKTeX unless you enjoy finding new ways to literally waste your time. Yes, it's a tad bit more user friendly, but it's also literally ~twice as slow as TeXLive. I really wish people gave this heads up when mentioning it... it should be a criminal offense not to! I wasted so much of my life just waiting for it to compile and I only found out TeXLive was so much faster when it was years too late.