[OS X TeX] Finally we are grown up

[Jeffrey Weimer]

On Nov 21, 2006, at 1:45 PM, Philipp Mathey wrote:

> you do realize that Gerben Wierda, Claus Gerhard, Bruno Voisin and
> everyone else on this list offer their advice/support/solutions for  
> free ?
> It is not like you  bought some software and now you are entitled
> to customer support. That would be the case if one bought Textures.

Yes, I do realize this. My comments are not meant to downplay,  
deride, or in any way demean their efforts. Though not said in my  
prior message, I also do appreciate the effort that Claus Gerhard and  
Bruno Voisin and everyone else on this list are putting in to pull  
together a transition. It is both overwhelming and sometimes awe  
inspiring to watch.

My comments are directed specifically at an attitude that seems to be  
present, wherein the product of efforts to create installers for  
LaTeX are promoted as "no-brainers" for everyone of us to use. Some  
of us who may otherwise be quite proficient at USING LaTeX are either  
a) not really all that astute or b) not really all that interested in  
being as proficient at playing "tricks" with MacOS X/Unix/Applescript  
commands in order to INSTALL LaTeX. It is not a question of whether  
we, as supposedly intelligent people, refuse to do something. It is a  
issue that, in doing what is needed, we will become a bit befuddled  
during the process, because for us, anything that messes with Unix/ 
Applescript/... likely never will be a "no-brainer" type of process.  
Hence, we will come back here and ask for help (because people such  
as Claus  etc do provide it freely in many ways ...).

(sigh)

In some respects, I am appreciating what some of my undergraduate  
students might feel when confronting me with what I consider as a  
trivial question (.... RTFM comes often to mind ....) while I am  
having a bad day.

I'll get down from my soapbox now.....

>
> Btw, Gerben Wierda is Dutch, I think.

Gosh darn!

My apologies for the mis-chosen language Gerben. The Heartfelt Thank  
You still stands!

--
J. J. Weimer, Chemistry / Chemical & Materials Engineering
University of Alabama in Huntsville, MSB 125, 301 Sparkman Dr
Huntsville, AL 35899                phone: 256-824-6954


------------------------- 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 Archive: http://tug.org/pipermail/macostex-archives/