[OS X TeX] Forcing the use of pdtlatex or dvips

[Dr. Clea F. Rees]

On 25/05/08, you seem to have written:

> On 25.05.2008, at 14:00, Herbert Schulz wrote:
>> 
>> On May 25, 2008, at 1:53 AM, Roberto Avanzi wrote:
>> 
>>> Well, apparently it is with TWO percent signs, so if I use
>>> 
>>> %%!TEX TS-program = pdflatex
>>> 
>>> as suggested by herbert Schulz, THEN pdflatex is always used, regardless 
>>> of the menu.
>>> 
>> Howdy,
>> 
>> Either one or two (or three, ...) will work. I've gotten into the habit of 
>> using %% only because if some printers get a raw file that starts with %! 
>> they immediately assume the file to be Postscript. I've never run into that 
>> problem but printing through using the lp command in Terminal to a 
>> Postscript printer could do that.
>
> Ok, nobody will ever believe what I am going to write.  I tried that with ONE 
> percent sign yesterday and they day before, several times, and it did not 
> work.  It worked, today, with two, though.  I tried it now again with just 
> one percent sign, and it works.  Weird.  (I must have mistyped something else 
> yesterday. Of course I will never figure out what.)

If nobody believes you, I must be nobody. I have never been able to get
this to work. I was about to try with two percent signs when I read
this. Being curious, I opened a xelatex document with the following
second line (the first - allegedly - sets the encoding):
%!TEX TS-program = XeLaTeX
-> result: pdflatex runs and complains, predictably that it can't
manage, that xelatex is needed etc. etc.
I change the second line:
%%!TEX TS-program = XeLaTeX
-> result: xelatex runs, compiles document
I change the second line:
%!TEX TS-program = XeLaTeX
-> result: xelatex runs, compiles document
I change the second line:
%!TEX TS-program = PDFLaTeX
-> result: pdflatex fails
I change the second line:
%!TEX TS-program = XeLaTeX
-> result: xelatex compiles document

I don't believe you mistyped anything. In any case, I _know_ I did not.
The changes shown are the _only_ changes I made to the file.

Yours,
cfr