[OS X TeX] Textures vs. TeXShop typesetting speed

[Charles Bouldin]

David,

  Unfortunately, I can't answer any of your specific questions, but I do 
have one to ask you, if you still have Textures installed.

I used Textures from version 1.0 and I  am sad that there will probably 
be no Textures for X, ever. I miss synchronicity, and to a lesser 
extent I miss flash mode. But, life goes on, other fine tools are 
appearing and being very actively developed.

The question for you, if you can still do this: Typeset the same large 
document with Textures under classic and TeXShop. Either a TeX or a 
LaTeX document would be fine. Tell the list the relative speeds. The 
last time I checked (which has been well over a year) Textures was 
-much- faster. If that is still the case, that is very strange, because 
it means that the Textures typesetting engine running under classic is 
faster than a native Unix TeX (teTeX).

I've wanted to raise the issue of typesetting speed on the list for 
some time, but since I can't provide hard numbers (I no longer have 
Textures installed) I have hesitated to so. Perhaps you, or someone 
else can provide numbers on this. My perception is that we now have a 
set of terrific tools to edit Tex, manage documents, and easily access 
a standard install of the typesetting engine, but that typesetting 
speed is quite slow compared with other TeX environments.

Let me be really clear: I am not trying to make anyone upset! I salute 
the work done to support all these tools. I'm just asking a question, 
and the first thing is to get the data to see if my "perception" is 
correct.

Chuck Bouldin

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