[OS X TeX] epstopdf

[Bruno Voisin]

Le 28 sept. 05 à 02:03, Claus Gerhardt a écrit :

> On Sep 27, 2005, at 22:27, Chris Goedde wrote:
>
>> That'saninterestingattitudebutIdon'tthinkI'llbetakingthatparticularpi 
>> eceofadviseanytimesoon.I'dratherencourageprogrammerstodealproperlywit 
>> hspaces(whichiseasytodo) 
>> ratherthancontortmylifetoaccomodatetheirlaziness.
>
> The unix conventions were created out of necessity or out of  
> convenience and most, if not all, software that uses these  
> conventions is free. When the Mac became a unix machine and tetex  
> and friends were ported to OS X by the unselfish work and devotion  
> of people like Thomas Esser, Gerben Wierda, Richard Koch, Sebastian  
> Rahtz to name only a few, these conventions were kept at least at  
> the shell script's level.
>
> Calling these people lazy because the restrictions do not suit your  
> idiosyncratic naming  habits strikes me as slightly ungrateful.

I do not think this is what Chris had in mind.

Calling idiosyncratic the use of spaces in file names, and more  
generally of non-alphanumeric characters, strikes me as slightly  
provocative.

For years and years spaces and all characters except for ":" have  
been allowed in Mac file names. Now with OS X "/" is forbidden as  
well (depending on the application), and I feel it inconvenient  
enough already to no longer be able to use dates such as 28/09/2005  
in file names.

You cannot expect people, or ask them, to stop giving files natural  
names, just because that makes the programming task easier. The Mac  
has made its success by adapting the machine to the man, and not the  
other way round.

Please don't misinterpret me: this is not a criticism of the work of  
Gerben, Thomas, Dick or Sebastian in any way. They give away their  
time and energy freely for the benefit of the whole scientific  
community and far beyond this community (humanities, art, ...). Their  
system is fully usable, and the restriction in the use of epstopdf is  
minor indeed (and, on the Mac, dragging the eps files onto TeXShop to  
have them converted automatically suppresses this restriction).

But telling this is a perfectly satisfactory situation and people are  
foolish to use spaces in file and directory names: this is a  
statement with which I simply can't agree. Yesterday when reading  
your first message I thought that was irony; but reading today your  
second message, and realizing you were indeed serious, I just can't  
stay silent.

Bruno Voisin------------------------- Info --------------------------
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