[OS X TeX] xdvi and/or acrobat reader with darwin ports emacs

Curtis Clifton curt.clifton at mac.com
Sat Jan 22 18:26:26 EST 2005


On Jan 22, 2005, at 12:09 PM, Tom Kiffe wrote:

> On Jan 22, 2005, at 07:55 AM, Curtis Clifton wrote:
>
>> On Jan 22, 2005, at 4:51 AM, Peter Dyballa wrote:
>>
>>> ... TeXniscope from Massimiliano Gubinelli
>>> is free but first converts DVI to PDF, so it's rather a PDF viewer.
>>
>> That's just semantics.  Why does it matter what process TeXniscope 
>> uses
>> to display the dvi document?  Shouldn't a hidden-from-the-user
>> conversion for display purposes only matter if that process is too
>> slow.  And only the user can judge that.   As far as I know TeXniscope
>> supports dvi specials for synchronizing, but I may be wrong as I'm a
>> pdflatex user.  I'd appreciate enlightenment as this isn't the first
>> time I've seen TeXniscope derided as not being a DVI viewer, and that
>> doesn't make sense to me.  (I'm a fan of TeXniscope for PDF viewing.
>> Massimiliano has done great work and a great service.)
>
> I didn't realize that the difference between an airplane, a train, and 
> an automobile is just
> semantics. After all, each can be used to travel from New York to Los 
> Angeles. By the above
> reasoning we can call an automobile a train or an airplane.

Saith the man with a vested interest in the airplane business.

But with all due respect, my understanding is that the difference 
between TeXniscope and MacDviX for previewing DVI files is more 
analogous to that between two versions of the same model car.  One with 
a 4-cylinder engine and one with a 8-cylinder engine.  They look about 
the same.  They take the same inputs: gas, oil, accelerator pedal, 
steering wheel.  They produce the same outputs: wheels roll, car turns. 
  One just does it a lot faster.  A driver has to take them for a test 
drive and consider his or her needs before choosing.  But I don't 
understand why what is under the hood makes any difference whatsoever, 
beyond your commercial interest, other than speed.

So that is my question:  For DVI previewing, aside from speed, what are 
the differences in _user visible features_ between MacDviX and 
TeXniscope?

It's a legitimate question and simple saying the TeXniscope is not a 
"true dvi previewer" is not an answer.

On the other hand, TeXniscope is also free and is a pdf viewer to boot.

Cheers,

Curt

----------------------------------
Curtis Clifton, PhD Candidate
Dept. of Computer Science, Iowa State University
http://www.cs.iastate.edu/~cclifton

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