[OS X TeX] Re: Save date-time, not Print date

[Alain Schremmer]

Since I am reviving an old thread, let me quote the original post (I  
am afraid by yours truly):

> Whenever I print a document, I get the PRINT date. Is it possible  
> to get the (last) SAVE date-time instead?
>
> I thought I remembered something about it but was unable to find in  
> the archive anything other than version control which is a lot more  
> than what I would like since all I want to know is if what I have  
> handed out to the students is "current".



To be a bit more specific [TeXShop 2.14 under 10.4.11]:

I have a "printtime" in the preamble with
			\newcounter{hours}\newcounter{minutes}
			\newcommand\printtime{%
			\setcounter{hours}{\time/60}%
			\setcounter{minutes}{\time-\value{hours}*60}%
			\thehours:\theminutes%

Now say that

1) I have a FILE and that said FILE can come in different forms, A,  
B, C, activated by various booleans (the whole thing courtesy of  
Chris Goedde) right after \begin{document}.

2a) On Monday, I print FILE in form A
2b) On Tuesday, I print FILE in form B
2c) On Wednesday, I print FILE in form C

3) On Thursday, I make a change to the source text of FILE

4) On Friday, I print FILE in form A

Thus, each one of the four paper prints of FILE has a different date  
but I have no way of knowing that the Friday print comes from a  
different source text than the Monday print. (And this can  
occasionally be a bit awkward.)

What I would like is also to have the time of the last save of the  
source text.

Of course, this is impossible since, to get the various forms I have  
to hit Typeset which automatically saves FILE even though there was  
no change to the source text.

But it seems to me that TeXShop could easily (?) have another button  
next to Typeset that would typeset but not save. (The fact that the  
settings of the booleans would not be saved either is of course no  
problem.)

Before I bother sourceforge with a request, though, I would like to  
have the opinion of this list on the merit(s) of the case, if any.

Regards
--schremmer