[OS X TeX] Re: Pdftex versus TeX&Ghostscript

[Bruno Voisin]

Le 24 mai 05 à 08:38, Hanspeter Kraft a écrit :

> Is there a plan to correct this in the next version of TeX? It is  
> somewhat awkward that one has to change the file everytime when I'm  
> switching from pdftex to TeX&Ghostscript or back.

Hi,

No I don't think there are plans to change this. The new behaviour of  
magnification and true units in pdfTeX is something not specific to  
TeX on the Mac, but decided at the level of the core developers of  
TeX for all platforms. I don't remember exactly all the pros and cons  
of the discussion that took place last December on this list, but  
IIRC the involved developer, Hartmut Henkel, seemed to have rather  
strong feelings about the issue, arguing that the new behaviour is  
indeed the correct one, that should always have been.

As for avoiding to change the input file, there's a specific LaTeX  
package ifpdf.sty (at /Library/teTeX/share/texmf.tetex/tex/latex/ 
oberdiek/ifpdf.sty), which can also be used in plain TeX. It defines  
a test \ifpdf allowing you to write, for example:

     \input ifpdf.sty

and then:

     \magnification=\magstep3
     \ifpdf
       \input pdftexconfig
     \fi

or alternatively, for A4 paper, in case that is your default:

     \mag=\magstep3
     \hsize=210truemm \advance\hsize by-2truein
     \vsize=297truemm \advance\vsize by-2.1truein
     \ifpdf
       \input pdftexconfig
     \fi

Bruno Voisin
  
    --------------------- Info ---------------------
Mac-TeX Website: http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/
           & FAQ: http://latex.yauh.de/faq/
TeX FAQ: http://www.tex.ac.uk/faq
List Post: <mailto:MacOSX-TeX at email.esm.psu.edu>