[OS X TeX] TeXShop suggestions/questions

[Juan Manuel Palacios]

	Hello Mr. Koch, I'm a regular user of the TeX on Mac OS X mailing 
list and user of TeXShop. Following your request to the list for 
comments/suggestions on your application I thought I could forward mine 
now that you seem to be looking into them. I hope you don't mind that I 
e-mail you directly and also Cc the list, but I wanted all the 
subscribers to take a look at my ideas so that they can comment on them 
(please, all feedback is welcomed!). First of all, before I start, I 
want to congratulate and thank you for such a cool and handy app!!

	Actually what I write here, as the title says, are some suggestions 
based on questions I have, so I don't really know if they are possible 
at all. For starters I was wondering about the possibility of turning 
TeXShop into a DVI/PDF capable application, giving the user the freedom 
to choose whichever format He/She desires. What I mean to say is that 
I'd like it if TeXShop could use *and display* DVIs just as well as it 
handles PDFs, leaving up to the user what format to use as default. 
Maybe a preference stating something like "Use DVI" would turn TeXShop 
to use tex/latex thus producing DVIs and another one saying "Use PDF" 
would instead turn it to use pdftex/pdflatex. Is this possible, can 
TeXShop and/or Mac OS X even display DVIs? I've heard of an application 
that used DVIs, but maybe that was in Mac OS 9.

	Secondly I wanted to ask about a feature I heard long ago referred 
to as something like "Point and Go" in other apps. This is what I really 
wish TeXShop had! What I remember about what I once read is that you 
were able to click in any point of the output window to be immediately 
taken back to the exact same place in the source file. For example if I 
read a paragraph in the output and then decided I wanted to change some 
lines, instead of going to the source file to search for the appropriate 
paragraph I could just click the output on the desired place to make the 
application take me to the exact same paragraph in the source file. Is 
this possible at all or did I completely mis-comprehend what I read (on 
this list, I think)? Has this been implemented before in other TeX 
previewers? Is this exclusive to DVIs or can it be integrated into PDF 
viewers? Mr. Koch, any chance this can be included in a future TeXShop 
release?

	And lastly, more than a question what I have now is a suggestion 
and it is about syntax coloring. Plenty here have said how they'd prefer 
the $ enclosed math mode to be colored green just the same as the $ 
symbol itself. If I am allowed I would like to speak my mind on this 
one. I don't think this would benefit the understanding of the text very 
much because the subsequent coloring of the math commands would be 
completely lost. For example, if I type $\left[\frac{\partial^2 
()}{\partial x^2} + \frac{\partial^2 ()}{\partial y^2}\right]\phi = 
4\pi{}q$ and the whole thing is colored green just as the $ symbols I 
would loose the colors applied to the math commands, arguments and 
brackets. And I don't want that, I think the $ symbols stick out enough 
to make the reader realize when math mode has been entered and closed. 
Maybe syntax coloring could have some configuration allowing both 
options: to color only the opening and closing $, leaving the enclosed 
text to be syntax colored just as any other part of the text (as it 
currently works), or to turn the whole enclosed text into a single color 
loosing all the further coloring; the user could choose whichever is 
preferred. A third option could be to keep the current working scheme 
but turning the $ into a different color, given that currently they use 
the same as the brackets. What does everybody think? What do *you* think 
Mr. Koch?

	Well, those are my thoughts/suggestions/questions about TeXShop and 
its features/capabilities. Of all I said here what I would really love 
to see the most is the "Point and Go" thing, if it is even possible at 
all. Thank you again for your time and devotion to such a nifty 
application and thank you for the time spent listening to our requests!

	My warmest regards to all. Sincerely,...


		Juan.

P.S.: Please excuse me for sending this to you directly and also posting 
to the list, I wanted to make sure you and everybody else got this 
message. Bye!


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