Feature request for uploading zip files - Meta

निरंजन replying to Adám

Then this is a good idea I think.

निरंजन

I accept the security concerns of people. I didn't know these risks yet. Thanks all for replying.

निरंजन

@John Okay :) Nothing greater than the security.

निरंजन replying to samcarter

Okay! Security seems to be a valid point.

samcarter replying to joulev

For finding bugs it can actually help to be not up to date. If some new problem appears and only a couple of packages differ, this narrows down the list of suspects. I usually have a TL installation on a secondary computer which I only update every couple of weeks, to pinpoint such bugs more easily.

joulev replying to samcarter

Generally I will only care about what version of TeX Live the user is using. If not current version, "Please update TeX Live". If current version, "Please run `sudo tlmgr update --all`".

joulev replying to samcarter

Hmm, in that case perhaps I have been too familiar to useless error messages like `Missing number, treated as error` :)

samcarter

and often the OP does not know which parts of the log are important or not, else they could probably debug the problem themselves.

samcarter replying to joulev

Having the whole log can make it easy to spot tiny differences like version numbers because I can simply diff against my own log file

joulev replying to निरंजन

I'd say that posting the whole log file is quite unnecessary. I have never used the whole log file for debugging (after all, why would I need to read lines like `Document Class: article 2019/12/20 v1.4l Standard LaTeX document class`). Instead, I suggest truncating the log file to only useful information (error messages, package versions, local file path, output of `\message` and friends). After truncating the result will be relatively short and can be pasted directly to the question. (Generally we don't like clicking external links anyway.)

samcarter replying to निरंजन

That's not really a problem here. If even existant the maximum post lenght on topansers is so large that log files can be directly added to the posts without workaround like pastebin that where often encessary on stackexchange. I would not open radom zip files, instead either ask that the information should be added directly to the post or ignore the question

निरंजन

Especially for TeX one always has to post the contents of logs on a site like pastebin & then share the link here. It can be avoided if we allow zip uploads.

निरंजन

We can also very well have expandable blocks for the communities which don't need zip uploads.

निरंजन replying to Adám

Sorry for the late reply. I didn't notice the ping. Let's take the example of TeX. It generates (at least) 2 auxiliary files. The number may go upto 10. Wouldn't it look very messy if somebody posts 10 auxiliary files in expandable blocks? I am per se not against expandable blocks, but uploading zips might be a good option for languages which generate auxiliary files.

Adám

You can't see the zip contents. Not everyone wants to download (and not everyone can unzip) zips on their mobile plans and devices.

निरंजन

IMHO zip uploads are always better, like on github.

Adám replying to निरंजन

Sometimes used for spoilers; part of the post hidden until clicked, at which point it "slides open".

निरंजन

Can you please explain what they are?

Adám

@निरंजन Why not extend the markdown with collapsed expandable code blocks?

1 Answer