[OS X TeX] Re: Hide temporary files created by TeXShop

[Bruno Voisin]

Le 17 sept. 07 à 23:34, Markus S a écrit :

>> There are all sorts of things that can go wrong doing that. I  
>> think  it's easier to just use a macro that will delete all the  
>> extraneous  files once you're done using them. TeXShop even has a  
>> built-in  command, File->Trash Aux Files (Ctl-Cmd-A), to do that  
>> sort of thing.  You can add extensions to that command as a hidden  
>> preference; see  TeXShop Help.
>
> I already use this command frequently, whenever there is a  
> compilation error to fix. But I tend to compile (cmd-shift-L)  
> almost every 30 seconds, having to hit another shortcut every time  
> as well is not practical.

I don't think it's advisable to suppress aux files  
(.aux, .log, .bbl, .toc, .out, and so forth) until the last version  
of a document has been prepared and you just want to clean things up  
for archiving/distributing. These files are necessary for each LaTeX  
run, they contain information read and written during each run.

In case typesetting fails because of a malformed .aux file, say, you  
can still force typesetting to proceed by typing S in the console  
window, so that a well formed .aux file is recreated, and then  
typeset again.

> My beef with the all the aux files is that they make it more  
> difficult to find files in the Finder. Maybe if there were a  
> preference in the Finder to hide all files with certain extentions...
>
> Whoever comes up with a bullet-proof solution for this, deserves  
> praise. Ideally such a solution could be worked into TeXShop itself.

Once upon a time a TeX wrapper project was launched, to transform TeX  
documents on the Mac into bundles, inside which all auxiliary files  
would be stored invisibly. This is how iWork applications (Pages,  
Numbers, Keynote) work, for example: .key "files" are actually  
bundles, namely folders inside which in addition to the XML code  
itself for the file content are stored additional files for each  
included image, movie, and so forth.

That was back on December 2003. Sadly, the TeX wrapper initiative was  
stopped after three months due to lack of interest from developers  
(except Jérôme Laurens, the developer of iTeXMac). The archive  
containing the discussions which took place used to be publicly  
available at <http://mail.rna.nl/mailman/listinfo/texwrapper>, but it  
doesn't seem to be there any longer.

Given the person who was the driving force behind that initiative,  
Gerben Wierda, has stopped public TeX activity, I don't think the  
project will ever be revived.

Following is a copy of the message which I believe was the last one  
on that matter.

Bruno Voisin


> De : Gerben Wierda
> Date : 26 janvier 2004 14:23:04 HNEC
> À : "MacOS X and TeX."
> Objet : Rép : [MacTeX] TeXwrapper discussion list
>
> On Jan 26, 2004, at 13:46, Bruno Voisin wrote:
>
>> Le 26 janv. 04, à 11:53, Jérôme Laurens a écrit :
>>
>>> See also keynotes files, these are wrappers. You do not know  
>>> anything about their contents, you just see one presentation with  
>>> different slides. In fact, the contents is splitted, but hidden  
>>> inside the wrapper.
>>
>> This is exactly what I was referring to (and yes, I am indeed a  
>> Keynote user and I had looked at the gusts of a Keynote wrapper).  
>> The idea was the following: you open your application (Keynote or  
>> a TeX front end), from there you can create documents (notes,  
>> books, papers, reports, letters, presentations, ...), work on  
>> them, import figures in them, do all the things that TeX can do  
>> (create an index, a bibliography, a dvi or pdf, ...), but then  
>> when you save your work and leave the application the document  
>> looks as a single "file" in the Finder, not cluttering your  
>> desktop. All the intermediary and auxiliary files that TeX and  
>> friends need would still be available inside this "file", but you  
>> wouldn't even have to be aware of their existence, it would be the  
>> front end business to deal with them.
>>
>> In any case it's probably not a priority, that was just an idea.
>
> This was the original idea for this whole discussion.
>
> With TeX however, there are some extra things one needs to take  
> care of, lik ethe fact that you want to be able to exchange between  
> different frontends (iTeXMac, TeXShop) and you also want that the  
> directory itself remains usable from a Unix CLI perspective (so it  
> is easy to exchange with non-Mac systems). This is far from simple  
> if you want to do it right.
>
> To design this, the texwrappers list was started by me, mainly  
> because it would be a benefit for the TeX community if exchange  
> between TeXShop users, iTeXMac users, CLI users and users on non- 
> Mac systems would remain easy.
>
> But except for Jerome, no other frontend developer participated.  
> Jerome and I discussed a bit of the issues (and disagreed on  
> several, the archive is open for inspection) but without  
> participation of Dick (or someone from his team) and others, the  
> whole discussion is a waste of time. Which is why i am going to  
> shut that list down on feb 1 if there is no discussion on it  
> between more people than Jerome and myself.
>
> G

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