[texworks] Pine Needles Was - Re: Mac issues

[Paul A Norman]

Hi,

I remember when first doing Statistics doing that exercise of
measuring pine-needles.

For any one who hasn't done it, you, as randomly as any human can do
anything, gather small piles of loose pine-needles (the leaves of pine
trees).

You then accurately measure the length of the pine-needles in
millimetres and then enter the data and graph the number of pine
needles (Y axis) against measurement of length points on the X axis.

Allowing for local variations and conditions you nearly always end up
with a graph that pretty well much conforms to the natural
distribution bell shape curve.

Its quite remarkable really.

Computer usage and choice of OS for varoius resons does not conform to
a bell shaped natural distribution curve. Nor is it a flat line.

For various historical commercial and economic stragety reasons it is
a biased curve perhaps best shown by this picture:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Operating_system_usage_share.svg

The median derived figures (with all the inherent assumptions about
what this represents about PC OS) for May 2011 look like this:

"Usage share of web client operating systems"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems

Windows
all versions: 86.37%

Mac OS X: 7.40%

OS (iPhone) (2.80%)

Linux (2.07%)

Statistically the order of magnitude for the "Windows all versions"
compared to to other versions quells and submerges many of the other
considerations that might be entered into (especially about people not
being likely to be using iOs Phones to run TeXworks etc etc)

So from the very nature of things there will be more Users asking
TeXworks questions from a Windows perspective. It show no bias on the
part of the TeXworks project- just a reflection of what is out there.

Whatever can be said, it was a good policy decision for the TeXworks
project to be designed from inception to try and encourage more
Windows and Linux users onto *TeX through making a good Editor like
the Mac system already had.

I use Windows and Ubuntu (--not as much as I would like), and never at
present a Mac of any kind.

But I have always been impressed with the even handed approach that
has existed here for all the different OS-es, human lanngauages, and
of courcse the *TeX attitude to different alphabets.

What I have seen so far is an effort from C++ code contributors,
Script contributors, and help manual writers and many others as well,
to try and reach across the boundaries of any sort and make this
project work.

The present focus on solving Mac issues is needed. I do not use a Mac
as I have said, but in the attitude of this project even earlier
joined in putting a plea out for any one with Mac programming
experience to help.

I hope that this genuine cross-platform and multi language approach
can be fostered and encouraged in this project, for it is a really
good things that has been happening, and I am sure that there is no
deliberate effort on any ones part to bias the project in any way,
just differing needs for attention on different things from time to
time.

Its is good that User experience and Developer and Scripting talk
cross over on the list.

Both groups have to sight subject lines that might not be of interest,
but in the end every one gets the chance to spot something they may
have a need to contribute on, and also to make suggestions when a
technical issue is being decided that may have enormous implications
for User experience.

Paul


On 14 June 2011 09:09, BPJ <bpj at melroch.se> wrote:
> 2011-06-13 22:20, Herbert Schulz skrev:
>>
>> While it may appear to you that most of the discussion is Mac
>> related it appear to me the other way round. I see much more
>> Linux and especially Windows discussion here. Most of the
>> recent development has first appeared on the Windows version of
>> TeXworks.
>
> I'm on Linux, don't particularly like Windows, and through my
> glasses I see mostly Windows-related discussion here, so it
> definitely depends on what angle you're looking from.
>
> /bpj
>