[OS X TeX] TeX wrappers

[Massimiliano Gubinelli]

I tried to follow all the discussion that is going on on TeX wrappers. 
I always liked the idea of bundles as implemented in MacOSX (and coming 
from the NeXT world). Simple directories which looks like files and 
highly structured so that to adapt to different environments (for 
example the .app bundle can contain executables for different platfoms 
and all the documentation). Then this allow to copy one application by  
dragging the bundle to the new location (instead of wondering where the 
installation procedure spread all the files - Unix users knows).
If you want to experiment with the accessibility of bundles just open 
the Finder and ctrl-click over one application. In the contextual menu 
there is an item "Show Package Contents". If you choose it then you can 
look inside the bundle like it were a normal directory. Indeed the Unix 
interface is not aware of bundles and treat applications as 
directories. So I do not think there are problems with other operating 
systems in allowing TeX Wrappers. It's main usage should be to organize 
(inside a file-system) all the tex sources and other resources related 
to one typesetting project.  Some of our already to that manually (even 
under other Unixes). If I can have a single representative Icon in the 
finder for my project which hides all the .aux, .log, .bib, ecc.. then 
I'm happy and I'm not scared of interoperability with other systems.

  The issue of extracting the pdf should be considered, from the point 
of view of a user interfaces, as a conversion from .texd  to .pdf. 
Something like "Extract PDF To File..." or "Write PDF To file...". 
Indeed if one is ready to adopt the concept of a single entity which 
take the place of a moltitude of files then the fact that a TeX project 
can be rendered in PDF or XML or any other Graphic format should be 
independent from the contents of the Package. The latter should be a 
black box when operated inside a framework like TeXshop or iTeXMac.


Just some (other) gas....


massimiliano gubinellli

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