[OS X TeX] TexShop w/ minimal LaTeX installation for dummies?

[Will Robertson]

Ralph Pöllath wrote:

> Would it be possible to produce a version of TexShop containing a 
> minimal LaTeX installation in its application bundle?
> 

Another program that I heard about recently actually does this just for 
(I believe) ConTeXt's PDF tools. I'm at work, so I can't remember 
exactly which program that was, though...

> That would make it extremely easy for first-time LaTeX users (coming 
> from MS Word, e.g.) to get an impression of what LaTeX feels like. Of 
> course, this would be suited for exploration only - those who would like 
> to continue using LaTeX shoud use i-Installer to install the real thing 
> (think Knoppix).
> 

One of the problems is deciding exactly what gets included and who 
maintains it. Personally, I'd include only pdflatex and keep only the 
most used packages, but I haven't looked into the situation enough to 
know how much that would bloat TeXShop by.

You certainly don't want TeXShop to increase in size five-fold just to 
help out new users. I think with the progress Gerben's made recently 
with i-Installer, it's simple enough to install TeX anyway.

Will
-----------------------------------------------------
Please see <http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/> for list
guidelines, information, and LaTeX/TeX resources.