[OS X TeX] New Macros, new Engines, new TeXShop versions, and all that

[Herbert Schulz]

On Feb 21, 2010, at 5:58 PM, Alan Munn wrote:

> No, you're not missing the larger point at all; but for reasons unknown to me, TeXShop deviates from the prescribed Apple model by completely blurring the distinction between "Application" and "User" with respect to many kinds of functionality, primarily Macros and Engines, but also command completion etc.  Because TeXShop allows us to change almost anything (good for power users) it copies all the macros, scripts, engines etc. into ~/Library/TeXShop from the application package itself.  There is no /Library/Application Support/TeXShop folder.
> 
> This has the result of being very non-transparent for most users, and has the unfortunate effect that new functionality in the form of macros, scripts or engines doesn't automatically show up when TeXShop is updated.  Of course, as the power users point out, they don't want upgrades messing with all their tweaking.  (I would generally consider myself a power user, but it took me quite a while to even realise that new functionality of this sort never showed up with TeXShop update; the default assumption would be that it *would* show up.)
> 

Howdy,

As far as I know there is no ``Apple Prescribed'' method. Even Apple ``deviates'' from this model. 

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs at wideopenwest dot com)