[OS X TeX] TeXShop's %& ugly bug

[Maarten Sneep]

On 10 sep 2004, at 20:07, Bruno Voisin wrote:

> Le 10 sept. 04, à 19:01, Maarten Sneep a écrit :

[snip]

>> I think it is a good idea to differentiate between two levels: a 
>> wrapper for configuration and things that _can_ be handled by a 
>> front-end, and a general directory structure. I still have some 
>> issues with CVS or other version control systems: applications should 
>> be designed with version control in mind (*ahem* KeyNote *ahem*).
>
> I thought "wrapper" was just a technically more precise name for 
> what's usually called a "bundle", à la Keynote:
>
> <http://developer.apple.com/appleapplications/keynote-apxl.html>
> <http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn2002/tn2067.html>
> <http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn2002/tn2073.html>
> <http://www.opendarwin.org/projects/keynote-tools/>
>
> Did I just get it wrong, and is the wrapper you are discussing 
> something more ambitious?

No, technically you're right. And what I think is good about the tex 
wrapper as proposed now by Jérôme, is that it is _less_ ambitous: 
Keynote stores all its files (including the master-source file) in the 
wrapper. If you do that for tex, you will have a problem, since tex is 
so versatile, you can never take care of all options. The user will 
have to manage that hierarchy yourself, and writing file manipulation 
tools is not what I have in mind: that's what you have the Finder for.

IIUTC: the tex wrapper idea is just to combine several configuration 
files in one (standardised) location, and have no configuration 
information in the source file.

> (FWIW I've not the impression Keynote's approach has been terribly 
> successful, given the software has mostly been stagnating since it's 
> been launched, which kind of feels bad for Keynote users -- like me.)

That has nothing to do with the way the files are stored. The moment 
you add an image to a textedit document, you're also using a wrapper 
system (.rtfd). The image is just stored in a directory, along with the 
contents. OmniGraffle also uses bundles or wrappers for its files. 
There are no doubt others as well. It is a convenient solution for 
storing related files. Of course, a tex project is also a set of 
related files, but there is no way of predicting what packages will be 
used, how to handle external files, ... If you have to rewrite a Finder 
like system to manage the components of the project, you're taking the 
wrong approach. And of course, including version control software 
becomes a bit harder, but is not impossible.

That is not to say I'd like to see KeyNote updated...

> And Maarten: in case that helps gaining some time, a TeX wrapper 
> discussion has taken place some time ago but was finally dropped due 
> to lack of several developers' interest, the archive being public and 
> accessible from <http://mail.rna.nl/mailman/listinfo/texwrapper>. If 
> you and Jérôme can provide enough impetus to see that revived, that 
> would be great! (As seen from a non-developer, who cannot contribute 
> anything else than ask others to do the work, and who may just be 
> talking nonsense!)

Noted.

Maarten
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