[Mac OS X TeX] The role of TeXShop

[Bruno Voisin]

I do agree with the wish to be able to use arrow keys, for example, for 
navigating through a TeXShop document. If that were to be implemented, I 
would favour the way Textures works, by using only arrow keys and 
modifier keys (like Shift-DownArrow, Cmd-DownArrow etc.), to the 
suggested single key equivalents (n for next page, etc.): single-key 
actions seem a bit un-Mac to me, TeXShop is not xdvi wrapped on a 
Macintosh!

On the other hand I do not agree with the emphasis on external editors 
and using TeXShop as a compiler. One very good thing with TeXShop is its 
elegance and integration, again pretty much like Textures: once you're 
inside TeXShop, you have everything at hand for writing, compiling, 
previewing and printing a document, like in any other Macintosh text 
processing application, and you - almost - don't have to know anything 
about the ugly details of how TeX works (the auxiliary files created, 
the file format conversions, the fonts required etc.). It's all 
available, but you don't have to care about it if you don't want to.

Using TeXShop as a compiler would make it similar to any other 
Unix-flavoured TeX implementation, with one program for editing, another 
for compiling, another for previewing, another for printing. Very un-Mac 
to me! I think it's good to make the use of external editors possible, 
for those inclined to work this way, but that shouldn't be done to the 
detriment of the built-in editor.

Sorry for adding this lengthy bit to the discussion, just thought I like 
TeXShop the way it is now and I wouldn't want it to evolve towards a 
Unix-flavoured TeX.

Bruno Voisin


-----------------------------------------------------------------
To UNSUBSCRIBE, send email to <info at email.esm.psu.edu> with
"unsubscribe macosx-tex" (no quotes) in the body.
For additional HELP, send email to <info at email.esm.psu.edu> with
"help" (no quotes) in the body.
This list is not moderated, and I am not responsible for
messages posted by third parties.
-----------------------------------------------------------------