[OS X TeX] Newcomer's questions

[Themis Matsoukas]

Josep,

As a heavy and satisfied Textures user myself who recently switched to 
TeXShop/tetex I can offer some insight. Your question is really about 
the OS-X interface because the tex machine can do everything it is 
supposed to.

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)

I have not used MakeIndex but BibTeX runs fine and you can invoke 
directly from the TexShop (or iMacTeX) window .

In addition, there are some very nice OS X utilities for organizing 
bibliography files such as McCracken's BibDesk which I found useful.

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

No. You cannot command-click on the output file to jump to the 
corresponding line of the source file and vice versa. This is the 
feature that I miss most from my Textures setup.

Some other comments:
---------------------

1. Using TexShop and its built-in editor I could not find a way to 
define my own typing shortcuts (e.g. a keyboard shortcut for 
\left\langle \right\rangle). This may be possible but I don't know how.

2. You cannot scroll continuously the pdf output window. To move to the 
next page you must click the next-page button.

3. There is no keyboard shortcut analogous to command-1 (or 2 or 3) to 
quickly jump between source and typeset (here, pdf) window.

4. If you use hyperref, be prepared for mixed results. The pdf viewer 
that comes with TeXShop does not recognize the hyperlinks. However, if 
you open the file in Acrobat, the links are present and they work.

Overall:
-------

I have lost some productivity because of the things I used to be able to 
do in Textures and can't do now. However, I lost more productivity by 
switching between OS X and classic to run textures that I have decided 
to stick with an all-OS X environment. I find the one-step generation of 
pdf output a further enhancement of productivity (I run almost 
exclusively pdflatex). Thanks to the experts in this list, I was also 
able to convert my MathTimes fonts from Textures to work with tetex 
which made my OS X setup closer to what I was used to.

iTeXMac appears to have more features than TeXShop but I have not used 
it enough to have an informed opinion.

I hope this helps.

Themis Matsoukas
matsoukas at psu.edu


On Tuesday, August 20, 2002, at 03:31 AM, Josep M. Font wrote:

> 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.
>
> 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)
>
> 2.- Can teTeX be installed directly from the TeXLive CD-ROM instead of 
> downloading it ? How ?
>
> 3.- Can the standard formats (e.g. plain, LaTeX, pdfLateX, etc.) be 
> recompiled with hyphenation patterns for several languages ?
>
> 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.
>
> 5.- Can TeXShop navigate from outpout to source and conversely ?
>
> 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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