[OS X TeX] MacTeX and LaTeX package documentation

[Bruno Voisin]

Le 13 oct. 06 à 07:00, Franck Pastor a écrit :

> Le 13-oct.-06 à 04:40, Rowland McDonnell a écrit :
>
>> I've recently installed MacTeX, and I thought I'd take a look at the
>> current documentation for Babel.
>>
>> The thing is, the documentation does not appear to have been included
>> with MacTeX:
>>
>> Hattie:teTeX rowland$ sudo find / -name "babel.*"
>> Password:
>> /usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.local/tex/generic/tex4ht/babel.4ht
>> /usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.tetex/doc/help/Catalogue/entries/ 
>> babel.html
>> /usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.tetex/tex/generic/babel/babel.def
>> /usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.tetex/tex/generic/babel/babel.sty
>>
>> Is this as it's supposed to be?  If so, what's the approved method of
>> getting the documentation?
>
> /usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.tetex/doc/generic/babel/user.dvi
>
> Generally speaking, for documentation one has to look in the "doc"  
> folder of the texmf trees (mainly texmf.tetex, and texmf.gwtex for  
> some additional packages).
>
> You also may use the "texdoc" command. "texdoc babel", in the  
> Terminal, opens the "TeX Catalogue online"'s section for Babel's  
> documentation.

This documentation user.dvi, which is the one included in teTeX and  
hence in gwTeX, is the lightweight version. In my opinion it is quite  
insufficient when one wants to understand and use the specific  
switches for any particular language --- in my case French.

For this, the full documentation babel.pdf is required, and at  
present you have to get it from CTAN, for example at:

<ftp://ftp.cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/required/babel/ 
babel.pdf>

I hope the situation will change at some point in the future, and  
babel.pdf will indeed be included. The problem here, I guess, is that  
teTeX chose not to include it, and given the development of teTeX has  
stopped nothing will be able to change until the TeXLive-based  
replacement for teTeX, upon which Gerben is currently working, will  
be effective.

Bruno Voisin



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