We recognize that adoption of TDS will not be immediate or universal. Most TeX administrators will not be inclined to make the final switch until:
Consequently, most of the first trials of the TDS will be made by members of the TDS committee and/or developers of TeX-related software. This has already taken place during the course of our deliberations (see Appendix section Related references for a sample tree available electronically). They will certainly result in the production of a substantial number of TDS-compliant packages. Indeed, the teTeX and TeX Live distributions are TDS-compliant and in use now at many sites.
Once installable forms of key TDS-compliant packages are more widespread, some TeX administrators will set up TDS-compliant trees, possibly in parallel to existing production directories. This testing will likely flush out problems that were not obvious in the confined settings of the developers' sites; for example, it should help to resolve OS and package dependencies, package interdependencies, and other details not addressed by this TDS version.
After most of the dust has settled, hopefully even conservative TeX administrators will begin to adopt the TDS. Eventually, most TeX sites will have adopted the common structure, and most packages will be readily available in TDS-compliant form.
We believe that this process will occur relatively quickly. The TDS committee spans a wide range of interests in the TeX community. Consequently, we believe that most of the key issues involved in defining a workable TDS definition have been covered, often in detail. TeX developers have been consulted about implementation issues, and have been trying out the TDS arrangement. Thus, we hope for few surprises as implementations mature.
Finally, there are several (current or prospective) publishers of TeX CD-ROMs. These publishers are highly motivated to work out details of TDS implementation, and their products will provide inexpensive and convenient ways for experimentally-minded TeX administrators to experiment with the TDS.
Efforts are under way to set up a "TDS Registry" that will coordinate assignment of TDS-compliant directory names and provide a definitive database of TDS-compliant software distributions. (Perhaps this could also serve many sites as the definition of when a package is local.) For now, distribution through CTAN serves as an imprecise registry.
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