[OS X TeX] To macro or not to macro (Was: Local additions and multiple TeX distributions)
Roussanka Loukanova
rloukano at stp.lingfil.uu.se
Fri Mar 9 18:34:05 CET 2007
Hi Bruno,
As if you are telling what I do, but with a few changes: substitute almost
everywhere Finder with the Terminal; and then, I am quite modest, I do not
do so complicate things as you do...
What you did time ago with your French keyboard for the French accents, I
do now for the Swedish letters on my Swedish keyboard with a Linux desktop
keyboard (which I use rarely), and also on my MBP with US keyboard, too,
for tex file. (For plain text reports and email, I just do not put any
accents :)
The Swedish special letters are only three, but for them, not only the
\ is like what you say, Alt-Shift-forgot-what, but also many other
useful special characters, {, }, @, etc... make my hands run over that
huge keyboard on the desktop, if i use it...
Back to practical things: what you write about the accents make me
think that you do something else nowadays. What? (May be I am still ages
behind... :(
Roussanka
They are only three, but all the On Fri, 9 Mar 2007, Bruno Voisin wrote:
> Le 8 mars 07 à 22:09, Alain Schremmer a écrit :
>
>> I assume you mean in the particular context of "local additions and
>> multiple TeX distributions" but, if not, why not and what do you use
>> instead?
>>
>> As for Applescript, what would you use to manipulate files in the Finder?
>> (Gerhardt wrote me a very nice Applescript that has saved me dozens of
>> hours.)
>
> There's nothing special here, only that I'm very old school in this respect
> and tend to do everything "by hand":
>
> - Typing in all control sequences verbatim in the TeX input window, with
> copies of the TeX and LaTeX manuals at hand. It's just that I had got used to
> work this way before the possibility to use macros was added to Textures or
> brought by Alpha. I find personally simpler to just type in things myself
> (same when typing HTML code in BBEdit), than invest time to select and learn
> macros whose operation may inadvertently change at any point in the future.
> And in my experience, the time you spend typing in an instruction gives you
> the opportunity to think ahead what you will do or write next.
>
> There was even a time, before option_keys was added to Textures allowing
> direct 8-bit input, when I was typing all accents in TeX code form (like \'e
> for é) while writing reports in French. And on a French keyboard, even \
> requires some contortion in itself (being accessible only as Alt-Shift-:).
> Which is good for my keyboard playing skills!
>
> - Similarly, I tend to do all mouse and menu actions "by hand" in the Finder
> or the printing dialog, for example, rather than devote time to find and
> learn AppleScripts which at any point in the future Apple or other providers
> may decide to inadvertently change or remove. And when I have elaborate file
> manipulations to perform (which does not occur often), I turn generally to
> the command line in Terminal.
>
> I'm not especially advocating this way of functioning, it's just the way I'm
> more comfortable with.
>
> Bruno Voisin
>
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