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

[Matthew Leingang]

Schremmer wrote:

>> Whenever I print a document, I get the PRINT date. Is it possible
>> to get the (last) SAVE date-time instead?


You ought to be able to get this with \write18 and the stat(1) shell  
command.  Of course, then your problem is preventing unnecessary saving.

> 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

I'm confused.  Does the document you typeset include FILE or is it  
FILE itself?

What I often do is create a source file and "shell" files which do as  
little as possible except what's different between the various forms  
of the document, and include the source file.  Then you can edit or  
typeset the shell files without changing the source text at all.

You don't even have to sacrifice portability, either, because you can  
put all these files in one docstrip file.  One run splits out the  
various files, then typeset the one you want (that would interfere  
with your desire to keep the save date of the source file, however).

> 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.

This sounds like something you do often, and if so, write a script  
rather than use an interactive editor to start the typesetting  
process.  Why open a file in an editor if you don't want to edit it?



--
Matthew Leingang
Preceptor in Mathematics
Harvard University

http://www.math.harvard.edu/~leingang/vCard.vcf