[OS X TeX] Textures early history

[Herbert Schulz via MacOSX-TeX]

> On Aug 4, 2022, at 6:24 PM, Max Chernoff <mseven at telus.net> wrote:
> 
> 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

Howdy,

I know this is a bit off topic, i.e., it concerns the history of the current MacTeX distribution, but I thought i'd throw it out there to be complete.

Dick Koch, who has compiled TeX Live for Mac and put together the MacTeX installer since the beginning of its modern life, wrote a really nice article for TUGBoat (Volume 33 (2012), No. 2) about creating MacTeX. The first parts are about installing MacTeX but the later parts give a bit of history of the what we now know as MacTeX. I include a copy for your perusal.

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Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
herbs2 at mac.com


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