[OS X TeX] Re:TeXSwitcher

[Claus Gerhardt]

To check if any of Richard Koch's claims are correct, I just used his  
TeX_Switcher to switch my tex source to Gerben's teTeX.

(1) Checking the active tex source yielded that it was indeed teTeX.

(2) The system wide path in /private/etc/profile (for simplicity I  
only refer to the bash shell) was identical to the system wide path  
that i-Installer and TeX_Switcher set for teTeX.

## Do not remove the next line
## setloginpath added /usr/local/bin end at Mon May  9 01:55:00 CEST  
2005
## TeX modifications start at Sun Nov 26 00:46:00 CET 2006
## Do not remove the previous line
if [ `whoami` != "root" ]
then
   PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/teTeX/bin/powerpc-apple-darwin-current"
   export PATH
fi
## Do not remove the next line
## TeX modifications end at Sun Nov 26 00:46:00 CET 2006

(3) I installed the local profiles, that I recommended, myself and  
their dominant tex path is

/usr/local/texprograms


which points exactly to

/usr/local/teTeX/bin/powerpc-apple-darwin-current

Indeed opening a new bash shell and issuing the command

texdoc index

opened a dvi file (as kind of pdf) in TeXShop from Gerben's old  
distribution. Issuing the command when TeXLive (TUG) is active will  
open a correct pdf file in Preview.

Hence, my local settings would in principle override the system wide  
path, but since they are set to
/usr/local/texprograms
they are identical with the system wide path. Thus, not only  is the  
path setting by TeX_Switcher not effected by TeXSwitcher's symlink  
and also not by the overriding local files (which by the way user's  
who will never use the command line won't need to install), but the  
new system wide path is also identical with the path defined by the  
local settings.

It works the same way as in TeXShop, when the tex path is set to  
texprograms: if the systemwide tex path is identical with the tex  
path defined by the symlink, then any user who has followed my  
recommendation with the local profile files has inherited the system  
wide path.

Thus none of Richard Koch's claims are valid.

Claus

On Nov 26, 2006, at 0:14, Claus Gerhardt wrote:

> I think these claims of yours are a bit misleading, since the  
> system wide path set by TeX_Switcher or i-Installer, after   
> TeXSwitcher did change the symlink, won't be effected by this  
> change, unless TeX_Switcher would check the currently active tex  
> source through the symlink and use this information for the path  
> setting.
>
> i-Installer doesn't know about the symlink at all and it is  
> difficult to imagine how its path setting script will be effected  
> by the presence of the symlink.
>
> The only way "TeXScript" could interact with the path setting, that  
> I am aware of, is through my recommendation that users, who would  
> want to use the command line, should save these local profile files  
> in their home directories. Even if they did, this wouldn't  
> influence the path setting as far as I know, but the local settings  
> would continue to override the system wide settings.
>
> The simplest way to remove these local provisions is to remove  
> these files from the home directory as I explained and recommended  
> in my ReadMe file.
>
> Claus
>
>
> On Nov 25, 2006, at 23:28, Richard Koch wrote:
>
>> In particular:
>>
>> 	a) Using Gerhardt's program, and then later installing either of
>> 	Gerben's TeX distributions with i-Installer will no longer reset
>> 	PATH correctly.
>>
>> 	b) Using Gerhardt's program and then later switching distributions
>> 	with my TeX_Switcher will no longer reset the PATH correctly.
>>
>
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