Switch to using a PPA for newer TeX packages?

[craigcitro]

One of the issues in #112 turned out to be old TeX packages getting pulled in as the default on ubuntu 12.04; the easy fix here was to switch to using a new PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:texlive-backports/ppa

Should we make this the default? The only question is whether the PPA will be an issue for reliability. @eddelbuettel or @csgillespie, do either of you have any experience with this particular tex-backports PPA?

[craigcitro]

oh, duh, @yihui is also probably a good person to ask ...

[eddelbuettel]

As you asked, I have no view. I don't use 12.04 for anything but Travis. And I don't use LaTeX on Travis as I can't be bothered to wait for the installation.
As for the ppa: if it works, sure. OTOH the next LTS, 14.04, will come out this month. If Travis switches "soon enough", this may not matter. On current Ubuntu releases all is well.

[csgillespie]

Sorry, I don't have any experience with LaTeX versions.

[yihui]

I do not use LaTeX on Travis, either, for the same reason as @eddelbuettel. And I'm moving towards HTML vignettes, so LaTeX is even less of concern for me.

But if you do want to install LaTeX, I believe that texlive-backports PPA should be reliable enough. I used it for a long time before TeXLive 2013 came to Ubuntu.

[craigcitro]

OK, I'm going to switch.

@eddelbuettel yes -- I'm looking forward to 14.04, when this will be irrelevant.

@yihui that's awesome -- the sooner you move to HTML, the sooner all the knitr users do. :P