[OS X TeX] TeXShop's %& ugly bug

Bruno Voisin bvoisin at mac.com
Fri Sep 10 20:07:01 CEST 2004


Le 10 sept. 04, à 19:01, Maarten Sneep a écrit :

>> Very simple description
>> A TeX wrapper is just a folder containing everything for the 
>> document, except standard macros maybe.
>> Name it foo.texd for example (texd for tex directory).
>> The contents must agree to only two rule:
>> 1- *.texp names are reserved for the project names.
>> 2- *.texp files can be removed without breaking the document.
>>
>> So each time you gather all your files in one folder, this is a basic 
>> TeX wrapper
>> I bet you already use such design.
>
> Yes, but I can use the finder, of the terminal to manipulate the files 
> in this pseudo-wrapper. A true wrapper (in the Cocoa sense) doesn't 
> (easily) allow for intervention into the structure. The latter would 
> be undesirable.
>
>> Then, the meta data is stored in some *.texp folder (texp for tex 
>> project)
>> Inside this folder, you find a main property list containing the 
>> encoding and master info, along with other folders or files 
>> containing frontend private data. The project must be more general 
>> than a simple .texshop file or property list.
>
> So the wrapper is not for organising the tex sources, but for 
> organising the configuration. It would be nice if tex-generated 
> temporary files could be redirected into this wrapper - except for the 
> occasional .aux corruption after fiddling with babel.
>
>> In fact the wrapper is not the central point, the project design is 
>> as you pointed out above.
>
> I think it is a good idea to differentiate between two levels: a 
> wrapper for configuration and things that _can_ be handled by a 
> front-end, and a general directory structure. I still have some issues 
> with CVS or other version control systems: applications should be 
> designed with version control in mind (*ahem* KeyNote *ahem*).

I thought "wrapper" was just a technically more precise name for what's 
usually called a "bundle", à la Keynote:

<http://developer.apple.com/appleapplications/keynote-apxl.html>
<http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn2002/tn2067.html>
<http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn2002/tn2073.html>
<http://www.opendarwin.org/projects/keynote-tools/>

Did I just get it wrong, and is the wrapper you are discussing 
something more ambitious?

(FWIW I've not the impression Keynote's approach has been terribly 
successful, given the software has mostly been stagnating since it's 
been launched, which kind of feels bad for Keynote users -- like me.)

And Maarten: in case that helps gaining some time, a TeX wrapper 
discussion has taken place some time ago but was finally dropped due to 
lack of several developers' interest, the archive being public and 
accessible from <http://mail.rna.nl/mailman/listinfo/texwrapper>. If 
you and Jérôme can provide enough impetus to see that revived, that 
would be great! (As seen from a non-developer, who cannot contribute 
anything else than ask others to do the work, and who may just be 
talking nonsense!)

Bruno Voisin
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