[tex-live] Xdvi not working

[Richard Koch]

Folks,

As already noted on this list, xdvi works if you have XQuartz 2.7.8, but
fails if you updated to XQuartz 2.7.9, which was released on May 5, 2016.

Just now, I installed XQuartz 2.7.9 on El Capitan and recompiled. Then
I installed the new xdvi and xdvi-xaw. After that, xdvi ran fine on El Capitan.

But there is a complication. I actually compile 64 bit binaries on Snow
Leopard, so the binaries will run on many different systems. That machine
had XQuartz 2.3.6.

It turns out that XQuartz 2.7.9 can be installed on Snow Leopard (it is
the oldest version of OS X supported by XQuartz). I’ve updated and
am compiling xdvi now. With luck, this version will work on all the
current 64 bit architectures if XQuartz is updated to the current version.
(With even greater luck, perhaps the binary will work without updating
XQuartz).

A lot more testing is required, however, because Ghostscript in MacTeX
was compiled both with and without X11 support, and the X11 support
used XQuartz 2.3.6. We wouldn’t want to fix xdvi for the very few people
who use it, but break Ghostscript.

Next week is WWDC, which I’m going to watch from home using
appleTV. This note explains that we are looking at the xdvi problem,
but doesn’t promise a fix very soon.

Dick Koch