TeXShop and BBEdit (was Re: [OS X TeX] BBEdit 7.0)

[Tom Kiffe]

There has been some discussion on this list lately about using BBedit as a
text editor for TeX, generally in conjunction with TeXShop. Since I appear
to be the only individual writing OS X TeX plug-ins for BBEdit, perhaps
I can add a few words to the discussion.


Using BBEdit with TeXShop.

To say that TeXShop supports an external editor is rather disingenuous at this
point. As far as I can tell, all this means at present is that TeXShop won't
open a tex file in its built-in editor if it is configured to use an
external editor. At least two changes need to be made to TeXShop for it
to support an external editor. When TeXShop is configured for an external
editor an open document event sent to TeXShop with a tex file should cause
TeXShop to typeset the file with its current configuration and without
further action on the part of the user. Once TeXShop supports this feature
I can easily write a BBEdit plug-in to tell TeXShop to typeset the file
displayed in BBEdit's front window. 

When configured to use an external editor TeXShop must allow TeX to call 
BBEdit or any other external editor when the user types an 'e' at a TeX 
prompt. Since I have nothing to do with the development of TeXShop I don't 
know how difficult this change could be. It may be as simple as having 
TeXShop not set the value of the TEXEDIT environment variable when it is 
running with an external editor.


Using BBEdit with CMacTeX or OzTeX.

This approach only makes any sense if one has not installed teTeX and is
probably supported by some users who remember doing TeX on OS 7, 8, and 9.
CMacTeX already fully supports BBEdit as an external editor on OS X. As 
far as I know, there are no OS X BBEdit plug-ins for OzTeX.


Using BBEdit directly with teTeX.