I am writing some e-books on free software. I am recommending TeX (of course) and Context instead of LaTeX. The vast majority of my readers will be using some flavor of MSWindows. Unfortunately there have been problems in synchronizing Context releases and Miktex releases, in re. hyphenation and fonts in general. I need to recommend a download package for readers who will be newcomers to the world of TeX. Which is the safest pointer? I see Miktex as a possibility but also the stripped versions of the TeX distribution maintained on the Context site. So how would you start an absolute newbie to e.g., Context and pdfetex? Where would you point them for their first download?

I think both MikTeX and Hans' minimal tree are good. The MikTeX installer might feel a bit more familiar to a newbie, but if you give them instructions on how to install the minimal tree, it shouldn't be anymore challenging than MikTeX. Also, I think it's easier to stay in sync with Hans' development of ConTeXt using the minimal windows distribution and updating via the texsync script. Although, using texsync would also entail installing Ruby and Cygwin (to get the Rsync program). I think the only unexpected thing I had to do to get the minimal windows tree working was to make the files in texmf-mswin\bin executable (the permissions were not right). Matt

In message <200502190841.45750.john@wexfordpress.com>, John Culleton writes

So how would you start an absolute newbie to e.g., Context and pdfetex?

[Apologies if you get this twice - first time I used the wrong email identity so I think that the list server has quarantined or deleted it.] Mswintex.zip is another option for a basic (Context only) setup that avoids the frighteningly large list of checkbox options presented by MikTeX. The only problems I had installing mswintex.zip were in trying to find any installation instructions. :-) (Note to Hans: if installation instructions do exist then please make them more obvious.) So I wrote my own :-) which I have attached and which you are welcome to use freely. The only caveat is that I already had ActiveState Perl installed on my machine so I don't know whether it needs to be installed separately in order to make texexec work or whether mswintex.zip handles this on its own as well. I would be grateful if you could check this out for me. If the instructions do work then please also let Hans know and maybe he could add them to the mswintex.zip distribution? No need to keep my name in there - people might start asking me for help (which would be bad for them). ;-) Regards, -- Bruce Horrocks Surrey, UK