[OS X TeX] Page origin problem with TeXLive and dvips

[Bruno Voisin]

Le 30 janv. 07 à 11:45, Bruno Voisin a écrit :

> Thus it seems the instructions for setting page size in MacTeX are  
> in error:
>
> - The instructions in ReadMe.rtf are erroneous.
>
> - At install time MacTeX picks up the paper size A4size, based on  
> the system prefs, while the correct setting seems to be a4.

Here is, I think, what happens, looking at the postflight script from  
TeXLive-2007.pkg:

- The installer uses the code:

> PAPER=`sudo -u $USER defaults find DefaultPaperID \
>      | perl -pe 's/^.*DefaultPaperID = "(.+)".+$/$1/; s/^iso-//; s/ 
> ^na-//'`

to pick up the paper size, by using "defaults" to get DefaultPaperID:

> theo0mc234:~ brunovoisin$ defaults find DefaultPaperID
> Found 1 keys in domain 'com.apple.print.PrintingPrefs':  
> {DefaultPaperID = "iso-a4"; }

and then removing "iso-" at the beginning of that ID. For somebody  
with A4 as the OS X default paper size, this yields "a4" which is the  
exact wording texconfig expects.

- However, the following operation of texconfig-sys in the script is  
incorrect:

> if [[ "$PAPER" == "a4" && "$PROCESSOR" == "i386" ]]; then
>      echo "### setting default paper size $PAPER"
>     /usr/local/texlive/2007/bin/i386-darwin/texconfig-sys paper $PAPER
> fi
>
> if [[ "$PAPER" == "letter" && "$PROCESSOR" == "i386" ]]; then
>      echo "### setting default paper size $PAPER"
>     /usr/local/texlive/2007/bin/i386-darwin/texconfig-sys paper $PAPER
> fi
>
> if [[ "$PAPER" == "a4" && "$PROCESSOR" == "powerpc" ]]; then
>      echo "### setting default paper size $PAPER"
>     /usr/local/texlive/2007/bin/powerpc-darwin/texconfig-sys paper  
> $PAPER
> fi
>
> if [[ "$PAPER" == "letter" && "$PROCESSOR" == "powerpc" ]]; then
>      echo "### setting default paper size $PAPER"
>     /usr/local/texlive/2007/bin/powerpc-darwin/texconfig-sys paper  
> $PAPER
> fi

Wherever "texconfig-sys paper" is used, it seems one should have  
instead "texconfig-sys dvips paper" and "texconfig-sys pdftex paper".  
For example:

     /usr/local/texlive/2007/bin/i386-darwin/texconfig-sys paper $PAPER

should be replaced with:

     /usr/local/texlive/2007/bin/i386-darwin/texconfig-sys dvips  
paper $PAPER
     /usr/local/texlive/2007/bin/i386-darwin/texconfig-sys pdftex  
paper $PAPER

Because the script is not run properly, it either fails silently or  
produces incorrect output (I don't know'), and as a result the  
default config.ps from TeX Live is used unmodified. As Peter  
remarked, this default is faulty, at least on a Mac, and produces  
what Frank and I observed.

I don't know whether similar steps should be taken for dvipdfm,  
dvipdfmx and xdvi. I could not find any decent documentation for  
texconfig, even in /usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf/doc/tetex/ 
TETEXDOC.pdf. The man page is remarkably unhelpful, and "texconfig  
help" is concise to say the least. According to it, I imagine one  
could try:

	texconfig-sys dvipdfm paper a4
	texconfig-sys dvipdfmx paper a4
	texconfig-sys xdvi paper a4

but given the gwTeX i-Package doesn't do this I imagine this  
superfluous.

There's also a "texconfig-sys paper a4", but what does it do exactly,  
given it does not seem to work here?

Bruno Voisin
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