[OS X TeX] MacTeX - a few questions

[Roussanka Loukanova]

On Sun, 25 Feb 2007, Gerben Wierda wrote:

...
>>> MacTeX doesn't change the permissions of /Applications/TeX if it already 
>>> exists. The MacTeX package for gwTeX doesn't install anything in 
>>> /Applications/TeX. Thus I conjecture that everyone reporting this 
>>> permissions problem used i-Installer to obtain gwTeX sometime in the past.
>> 
>> ...., ah ok. I installed Gerben's gwTeX (and will continue to do so). Maybe 
>> he finds the time to fix this, but it is not a problem once you know 
>> reclaiming ownership doesn't destroy anything.
>
> Hmm, yes. I can fix that easily enough. I think what I will do is make it so 
> that /Applications/TeX gets the same permissions as /Applications. That way, 
> if in the future, /Applications gets more restricted (not entirely unlikely 
> given increasing security demands) so will /Applications/TeX.
>
> Whatever I do, though, there will always be some disappointed users. After 
> all, some people may actually *want* the other permissions. I have used 
> drwxr-xr-x because it is somewhat safer as a default.

I do not think that we can find a disapointed one.

Most of us, if not all, want what is safer, i.e., possibly the safest. The
users, at least the "typical" ones, leave how the things to be done on the
developers. Then, when we get stuck on something, we sometimes speculate,
perhaps amateurishly, that this and that would have done better.

The other night, I did my latest upgrade, i.e.,  download of MacTeX-2007
from <http://www.tug.org/mactex/>. The website is indeed extrordinarly 
good, as are both gwTeX and TeXLive-2007! Right away, I have to say Emacs 
too: I can't do without it.. I use Carbon Emacs. I think that TeX on Macs 
has become the masterpiece of TeX, esecially for its integration with all 
the other applications.

Roussanka

------------------------- 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/