[OS X TeX] Re: Font tools

[Alain Schremmer]

Thanks very much.
Of course, you did not expect for one second that, other than lollipop, 
I would understand one word of your response?
However, I have forwarded it to my friend who once explained to me what 
a lollipop was. Sorry. I meant a p-list. Moreover, if /I/ insist on a 
Gui--my interest not being in programming, the stuff he has written, 
mostly for "local" use, has always had minimal Gui and that mostly 
because /I/ was going to be among those going to /use/ it. Now /that /is 
a friend don't you think?
If there is documentation, albeit not for teaching, I am sure that he 
will make do.

So, again, thanks and let us see what he will do.
But, I am afraid, no holding one's breath.

Still, could, and would anyone propose an idea for a small i-package? 
(Like a doctoral advisor suggesting a thesis for a dissertation. But 
with /no /pestering afterward.)

Regards
--schremmer

Gerben Wierda wrote:

>>Gerben Wierda wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>It would be nice of more people would write i-Packages. It is not that
>>>difficult.
>>>      
>>>
>>I have an old colleague and friend, mac fanatic, whom I am trying to get
>>involved in OpenSource. Contrary to me, he has written code (in C++) but
>>when I tried to get him interested in writing panels such as Latex and
>>Matris panels in TeXshop, thinking that would be a /finite/ task, he
>>almost swore he would never ever talk to me again. Eventually, he showed
>>me an article in MacTech in which Cocoa was said to be quite a bit less
>>than friendly or whatever.
>>
>>How about i-packages? Is there a reference somewhere on how to do this
>>and what it involves that I could recommend he read? (I don't want no
>>trouble.)
>>    
>>
>
>There is a learning curve. As there is for Cocoa. Remember Alan Perlis and
>the lollipop ;-) (I always thought that quote was from Knuth, but
>according to a page I found it isn't) Not as steep a curve, but the
>documentation such as there is is not written for teaching purposes, so
>you need to get it from me.
>
>It seems you and your friend (given his somewhat explosive nature) better
>not get involved until the process has been documented better and maybe
>there is a GUI tool for it. For those who are interested in doing some
>reverse engineering:
>
>The process itself is simple. You need to create a basic property list for
>the package, and put the stuff (like configure scripts, bzipped tar
>archives with the software) in a directory with .ii2 extension and then
>call the provided script with both the name of the .ii2 directory and the
>basic property list. The script then creates a new property list inside
>the .ii2 directory which becomes the package table of contents.
>
>The problem is writing the basic property list. For the simplest packages,
>they are about 800 bytes (very small, very simple, just containing a few
>basic items like the default URL, the install location, if it is
>relocatable, if it needs authentication, etc.), for a package like TeX
>which is horrendously complicated with sets, parts, dependencies inside
>and outside, it is 13kB.
>
>The basic source code for my i-Packages can be downloaded from my
>SourceForge site. Comes with Makefiles galore.
>
>G
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