[OS X TeX] Newcomer's questions

[Gérard Degrez]

>Hi! I am new to the list, and I have several questions. As you will 
>guess, I am considering upgrading to MacOS X. I am currently a 
>satisfied and heavy user of Textures, and don't want to loose 
>productivity in the change. So here they are.
>
>Some questions concern both TeXShop and iTeXMac; please anyone 
>responding specify if you refer to both or only one of them.

First, it should be mentioned that TeXShop and iTeXMac are 
*interfaces* to the teTeX engine

>
>1.- Are BibTeX and MakeIndex incorporated into these programs ? 
>(from TeXShop's documentation it seems so, but I'm not quite sure; 
>and don't know about iTeXMac)

BibTeX and MakeIndex are included in the teTeX distribution, and can 
be launched by both TeXShop and iTeXMac.

>
>2.- Can teTeX be installed directly from the TeXLive CD-ROM instead 
>of downloading it ? How ?

I guess so, never tried.

>
>3.- Can the standard formats (e.g. plain, LaTeX, pdfLateX, etc.) be 
>recompiled with hyphenation patterns for several languages ?

This can definitely be done using teTeX from a Terminal window (I did 
it to recompile with the -mltex option).

>
>4.- Can one \dump new format files (.fmt, I think) for instance to 
>pre-digest your favorite class and suite of packages ? I mean having 
>several of these, and being able to choose one each time I typeset a 
>different source file.

Again, this is definitely possible by issuing a command in a Terminal 
window, but whether and how it is possible to make these new formats 
accessible from the TeXShop/iTeXMac interfaces is unknown to me.

>
>5.- Can TeXShop navigate from outpout to source and conversely ?

What do you mean? TeXShop displays both output and source windows of 
course, and you can go from one to the other by clicking on it, in 
the usual Mac way.

>
>5.- It seems that when installing teTeX one has to choose between A4 
>or lettersize paper. What effects has this ? Can I still choose 
>which one from the \documentclass command ?
>
>Thanks for any answers!
>
>Josep M. Font
>Faculty of Mathematics
>University of Barcelona
>
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