[OS X TeX] Different TeX platforms

[Andy Doller]

On Thu, 14 Mar 2002, Gerben Wierda wrote:

> > If you're concerned 'bout staying up-to-date with pdftex on any 
> > platform, you should subscribe to the pdftex mailing list.
> 
> No, no, no. If you're concerned 'bout staying up-to-date with (pdf)TeX 
> you should change to Mac OS X ;-) ;-) ;-)

Upon reading as much as I could of the PDFtex archives, I have found
much much confusion about the pre-test releases of pdftex of (version
1.00a and 1.00b) since August 2001 across the various platforms.  I
would like to thank the folks that make the .dmg files of TeXShop and
TeTeX for keeping this confusion from the rest of us, continually
providing a great product especially since it is 'bleeding edge,' all
with the drag and drop simplicity of OSX.

Only my last question seem to apply here now.  With all of these
different versions of pdftex floating around, how can one claim device
independence, when code my code may or may not work on other default
installations. Also, it is alot of work to keep software at the
bleeding-edge level and you risk discovering bugs when you need a
publication out the door. I see that the success/ease of use/etc. of
pdftex on OSX could cause its own schism between itself in the rest of
the tex'ing community.  I am having a difficult time convincing others
(especially on windows machines) to switch to pdftex due its lack of
progress that is available to them by default? I just abandoned Texsis
because of the small community and waining support and from my
experience it is best to have a local community that all run the same
environment. Can someone convince me that I am not jumping from the
frying pan into the fire before I get to deep into writing my thesis?

Thanks,
Andy Doller





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