[OS X TeX] can't get Equation Editor to work

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 03.02.2005 um 17:28 schrieb Na Li:

> sh: line 1: mkdir: command not found
> 2005-02-03 09:49:51.813 EqEditor[7494] 36.00
> 2005-02-03 09:49:51.813 EqEditor[7494] /Applications/LaTeX Equation  
> Editor.app
> 2005-02-03 09:49:51.813 EqEditor[7494]  
> /tmp/3C03DC3E-75FB-11D9-B2DE-000A95A69BE0-7494-000011D6CA842F94/ 
> equation.pdf
> sh: line 1: cd:  
> /tmp/3C03DC3E-75FB-11D9-B2DE-000A95A69BE0-7494-000011D6CA842F94/: No  
> such file or directory
> sh: line 1: rm: command not found
> sh: line 1: cd:  
> /tmp/3C03DC3E-75FB-11D9-B2DE-000A95A69BE0-7494-000011D6CA842F94//: No  
> such file or directory
> 2005-02-03 09:49:53.437 EqEditor[7494] Display error log
>
> I'm not sure why the commands like 'mkdir' or 'rm could be found.

The reason is that they both are "external" commands, i.e. they are not  
built into the "shell", which is in your case sh.

>   Perhaps their full paths should be used in EqEditor?

That's not foolproof because a programme can be moved from here to  
there. Therefore the UNIX shells have an environment variable by the  
name of "PATH." This is a sequence of directory names that tell the  
shell in which directories it should look for command line programmes  
like rm, mkdir and many more.

The easiest thing is to create a file .profile in your home directory  
that should contain at least these two lines:

PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin
export PATH

You can do this for example by starting the editor pico in Terminal:

/usr/bin/pico ~/.profile

You can start to write from the start. In the footer of this window  
you'll see the commands available. The caret "^" stands for pressing  
the ctrl key, while simultaneously pressing the O or the X key you save  
the file's new contents and quit the programme.

When now invoke Equation Editor it should have learned this lesson. If  
not, then there is the file environment.plist in the subdirectory  
.MacOSX of your home directory. To edit it invoke in Terminal:

open ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist

A graphical application will start, the Property List Editor. Pressing  
the triangle near "Root" will show the file's contents. If there is on  
the left side a key "PATH" then you can edit the string on the right  
side to contain the elements I as above (the colon separates the  
elements that build the contents of the PATH variable).

If there is no PATH you have to create it. Click "New Sibling" and  
create the PATH key on the left side and fill in on the right the above  
mentioned four elements.

Saving and closing should be elementary ...

--
Greetings

   Pete

There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and UNIX.  
We don't believe this to be a coincidence. - Jeremy S. Anderson

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