[OS X TeX] Textures early history

[Max Chernoff]

Hi all,

I'm writing an article in the upcoming TUGboat issue about some TeX
history, and I'm having trouble tracing the history of Textures and
MacTeX (but not the MacTeX that you are thinking of!).

I know that the Textures program stopped being updated in 2012 after its
author unfortunately passed away (tex.stackexchange.com/q/108497) but
I'm having trouble tracing down its beginnings.

The earliest mention of a successful TeX implementation for the Mac is
in March 1986:
   https://tug.org/TUGboat/tb07-1/tb14short.pdf#page=2
The column describes a program called "MacTeX" written by Barry Smith
and distributed by Addison--Wesley.

The next mention of TeX on Mac that I can find is an ad from June 1986:
   https://tug.org/TUGboat/tb07-2/tb15ads.pdf#page=6
The ad is for a program called "MacTeX", this time distributed by FTL
Systems. There is no mention of Smith, or of anyone else.

In October of 1986, there are two more ads:
   https://tug.org/TUGboat/tb07-3/tb16ads.pdf
The first on page 205 is for a program called "Textures" distributed by
Addison--Wesley, in association with Smith. The second ad on page 207 is
identical to the earlier FTL systems ad.

Then in August 1988:
   https://tug.org/TUGboat/tb09-2/tb21beet-new.pdf#page=1
The column says that Smith is splitting from A-W and taking Textures
with him to a new company called Blue Sky Research.

A different article from 1988:
   http://mirrors.ctan.org/info/digests/texline/no8/fallen.tex
This article has the same news about Textures/Blue Sky, but it also
mentions that FTL Systems has quietly gone out of business.

My questions are:

1. What happened with Barry Smith's MacTeX? Did FTL already have a
MacTeX so Smith changed the name of his system, or did he sell his
software to both FTL and A-W under different names, or something else?

2. If the FTL MacTeX was independent from Smith's Textures, does any one
have any more information about it? I'm mainly curious about who its
author was, and if it was publicly released before Textures.

Thanks,
-- Max
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