[OS X TeX] Re: could use some info/follow up please

[david craig]

Alpha in Classic has been almost completely seemless, save for a few
minor and essentially unavoidable glitches connected with "helper"
applications due to Apple's infuriating decision to deprecate file
type/creators.  (It could be smarter about packaged applications as
well.)  But the developer's cabal has been _great_ about helping with
some of those glitches, and I have no doubt that most of these remaining
niggles will fade as/when Alpha X approaches/arrives.

> My follow up is:  are you Alpha users (btw, i'm referring to Alpha
> v7.2) using also TeXShop? or what for you makes up your Mac TeX'ing
> package?

Mostly the Carbon OzTeX.  I'm quite fond of it.  I especially like how
nicely it separates my own style files etc. and so on from the main TeX
installation, how easy it is to set search paths, and overall ease of
customizability.  And Andrew's been knocking himself out to add features
that enable interoperability with unix tools, other TeX-related
applications, and so on.  A very nice package.  You'd have to work
pretty hard to separate me from the Alpha-OzTeX pairing as my main TeX
platform.

And since I managed to integrate my OzTeX localtex tree into tetex's
with judicious use of a few symbolic links, on those occasions when I
*do* want to play around with TeXShop, all the bits and pieces are
there.  (There are some things about TeXShop I do like.  It would be
nice if OzTeX integrated half as smoothly with pdftex -- that's its
biggest lack, as far as my needs are concerned.)

> The only thing that your professors might miss if they are picky is
> the ability to fire up TeXShop (or OzTeX running under OS X) from
> Classic Alpha.

Alpha launches the Carbon OzTeX just fine.  Haven't tried sending to
TeXShop.  It's a package, so it might take a little tweaking to get
Classic Alpha to accept it as a TeX helper application.  (I don't think
its type/creator will be in Classic's desktop databse.)  This is exactly
the sort of thing that will go away when Alpha X arrives, and there
_are_ workarounds even now, if TeXShop/tetex is your TeX of choice.

David Craig


<http://www.panix.com/~dac/>


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