[OS X TeX] Newbie question

[Bruno Voisin]

Hi,

> With Textures® I'm using a self-made variation of Plain TeX. I made it 
> with
> Virtex. Is someone of you so kind to explain me how to do something 
> similar
> in this "new world"?

As regards custom formats in TeXShop: the following message was posted 
to this list a couple of weeks ago, to answer a request about compiling 
a LaTeX 2.09 format. I must say I haven't tested the procedure, since it 
requires writing a shell script and I haven't written any ever, but 
given the procedure was explained by Gerben Wierda I would trust it 
blindly.

And about Textures: a recent reply by Barry Smith on 
textures at email.esm.psu.edu provided renewed hope re. the future of 
Carbon - or Cocoa - Textures.

Bruno Voisin


> De : Joachim Kock <kock at math.unice.fr>
> Date : Mer 17 avr 2002  10:16:04 AM Europe/Paris
> À : "TeX on Mac OS X Mailing List" <MacOSX-TeX at email.esm.psu.edu>
> Objet : [OS X TeX] Re: LaTeX 2.09
> Répondre à : "TeX on Mac OS X Mailing List" <MacOSX-
> TeX at email.esm.psu.edu>
>
> It is not too difficult to add a custom format to TeXShop.  At
> least, the following recipe worked for me for some simple personal
> formats --- most of it was explained to me by Gerben.
>
> However there are probably additional problems with running
> LaTeX209: many of the files it reads have the same names as those
> used by modern latex, and unless some custom search instructions
> are given to latex209, it will find the 2e files instead and get
> very confused.  I think a way to deal with this was described in
> older versions of the OzTeX manual --- unfortunately these
> instructions are not included in the new version.
>
> Ignoring these problems for the moment --- assume the .ini file
> for the custom format is called yourtex.ini :
>
>
> Step 1: in the Terminal, build the format doing
>
>   initex
>
> and type
>
>   yourtex\dump
>
> in the * prompt.
>
> Step 2: move the resulting file yourtex.fmt to a place where
> tex can find it.  If your installation is a TeXLive one, this
> would be in ~/Library/texmf/web2c (which you need to create if
> it doesn't exist).  (If your installation is the tetex-style one,
> I think there is another location --- in any case, one way to find
> out is to issue the command
>
>   kpsewhich latex.fmt
>
> and study the response --- substitute the /usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf
> part with ~/Library/texmf)
>
> Step 3: create a script for running tex with this format.  This
> is a text file whose content is something like this:
>
> #!/bin/sh
> test -f "`kpsewhich yourtex.fmt`" || fmtutil --byfmt yourtex
> exec pdftex -fmt=yourtex -progname=pdftex ${1+"$@"}
>
> Name the file yourtex and make it executable (doing chmod +x yourtex),
> and place it somewhere where TeXShop can find it.  A good place is
> in ~/bin
>
> (If your installation is a tetex-style one, the procedure is
> a bit different for this step: instead of a script there is
> a symbolic link.  Create a symbolic link to the pdftex binary
> (whose path you find with kpsewhich and substitute for the
> bracket in the following command):
>
> 	cd ~/bin
> 	ln -s   [path-to-the-pdftex-binary]  yourtex
> 	chmod +x yourtex
>
> )
>
> Step 4: Inside TeXShop, go to  "Preferences --> Script".
> In the latex field, write the complete path to the file yourtex
>
> To use the format, tick "Personal Script" in the Typeset Menu
> (for each document you want to typeset with this script).  If
> you want to make this script the default typesetting method,
> go to "Preferences --> Typesetting" and choose "Personal Script".
>
> Before it works it may be necessary to restart the shell or
> perhaps issue the command texhash --- I'm not too sure about
> this...
>
>
> Cheers,
> Joachim.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Joachim KOCK
> Laboratoire de Mathématiques J.A.Dieudonné    Tél.  +33 04.92.07.62.40
> Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis           Fax   +33 04.93.51.79.74
> Parc Valrose - 06108 Nice cédex 2 - FRANCE    Mél.  kock at math.unice.fr
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------


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