[OS X TeX] final tex live 2007

[Richard Koch]

Mark,

On Feb 20, 2007, at 10:56 AM, M A wrote:

> Now that Tex Live 2007 is official (as of the last day or so), I'm
> thinking of installing it
>
> 1. Is the Tex Live 2007 at http://www.tug.org/~koch/NewPackages.html
> the same as the one from CTAN?

They are the same.

> 2. How literally true is "unmodified" in the "full TeXLive
> distribution from TUG, unmodified, 618.4 MB" statement at ~koch? The
> CTAN package is some 900MB, but the koch one is 600MB. Is this only
> because non-Mac platform specific stuff was removed (and some
> compression differences between dmg and zip)? Would the installs from
> either source really result in exactly the same set-up with respect to
> binaries linked from /usr/texbin, the maze of links in /Library, the
> distribution preference pane, TEXMFHOME being ~/Library/texmf (I
> thought Tex Live uses something like ~/tex by default?), etc?

The MacTeX TeXLive-2007 package is constructed by installing the full  
TeXLive-2007
with only two changes from the default configuration:

	1) Binaries for both PowerPC and Intel are installed (but of course not
	binaries for irrelevant processors)

	2) The local texmf tree set to ~/Library/texmf rather than the  
default /texmf.
	This is because Apple  design guidelines do not allow programs to  
install
	files at the top level of the user's home directory and because ~/ 
Library/texmf
	has become the customary place for the local tree on the Mac.

There are several reasons that it is better to install with MacTeX  
rather than the
TeXLive install script:

	1) After the TeXLive install script runs, it prints a message  
telling the
	user to adjust their PATH variable appropriately. But the MacTeX  
package
	adjusts both PATH and MAN parameters automatically.
	PATHs are adjusted by modifying /etc/csh.login and /etc/profile  
using exactly
	the script Gerben Wierda uses in i-Installer (i.e., we stole his  
script). If
	a user doesn't install with MacTeX and instead modifies local shell
	configuration files, their old PATH configuration via Gerben will
	remain in place with possibly confusing results.

	2) The TeXLive install script does not install the data structure by
	Gerben Wierda and Jerome Laurens supporting multiple TeX distributions
	on a machine, and it does not install Jerome's TeX Distribution control
	panel. But MacTeX installs these things.

If you install using the TeXLive install script, you need to  
configure GUI applications
by giving the new path to binaries, which will be /usr/local/texlive/ 
2007/bin/i386-darwin
(replace i386 with powerpc if you have that processor).

If you install using MacTeX, you also need to reconfigure GUI  
applications. This time
the path to binaries is /usr/texbin. Actually this is a symbolic  
link; the binaries
are still installed where the TeXLive install script puts them.

For those who have not been following this discussion, let me explain  
the data
structure briefly. After you install TeXLive-2007 with MacTeX, you  
will find that your
old teTeX-based installation from Gerben remains intact; if you  
installed his more
recent gwTeX, that also remains intact. You'll find that you have a new
control panel named TeX Distributions listing all of your TeX  
distributions. For
instance, Gerben's old distribution is listed as "gwTeX-2003-2005",  
his new
distribution is "gwTeX" and TeXLive is "TeXLive-2007". The active  
distribution will
be selected in the control panel's list. If you make a different  
distribution active in the control panel,
then automatically all of your GUI applications will be reconfigured  
(because the /usr/texbin
link will be reset), and your PATH and MAN variables will change  
appropriately.
So it is easy to return to an old distribution if there are surprises  
in the new one.
(I argued bitterly against this data structure until I saw the light.  
Now I think it is
fantastic.)

(To be honest, /usr/texbin is not reset; the data structure is very  
ingenious and
reconfigures by making one small change in the data structure, and  
then magically ...)

MacTeX determines your default paper size during installation and  
configures
TeX's default paper size using the commands

	sudo texconfig-sys paper letter
	sudo texconfig-sys dvips paper letter

(where "letter" may be replaced with "a4"). The TeXLive script does  
not configure
paper size. Instead it recommends that users configure manually, and  
recommends
using only the first command.

The advantage of the additional "sudo texconfig-sys dvips paper  
letter" is that
dvips then adds a postscript command "letter" (or "a4") to output,  
which is used by
ghostscript or Apple's distiller to correctly convert postscript  
files to pdf format.
But some printers do not understand the "letter" or "a4" command. So  
if you
send TeX postscript to the printer directly and this causes trouble,  
reconfigure
using only the first command.

Dick Koch
koch at math.uoregon.edu


>
> Thanks,
> Mark A
>
> ------------------------- Helpful Info -------------------------
> Mac-TeX Website: http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/
> TeX FAQ: http://www.tex.ac.uk/faq
> List Archive: http://tug.org/pipermail/macostex-archives/
> List Reminders & Etiquette: http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/list/
>
>


------------------------- Helpful Info -------------------------
Mac-TeX Website: http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/
TeX FAQ: http://www.tex.ac.uk/faq
List Archive: http://tug.org/pipermail/macostex-archives/
List Reminders & Etiquette: http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/list/