[OS X TeX] Re: Save date-time, not Print date

[Alain Schremmer]

Stefan Walsen wrote:

> Alain,
>
>>>> Whenever I print a document, I get the PRINT date. Is it possible  
>>>> to get
>>>> the (last) SAVE date-time instead?
>>>
>
> On July 13 last year, Peter Dyballa posted a solution by Heiko  
> Oberdiek to this list.
> The message had the subject "Re: [OS X TeX] datetime (include time  
> source file was last modified)"

That's IT: When I looked for the thread, I tried date, time and date 
time and then decided I had just dreamt the whole thing. I have now read 
the whole thread but it seems that two issues got mixed-up

A. At the beginning of the thread Kuipers asked "In 
\documentclass[twosided,12pt]{book} how can I record the date and the 
time." which I understand to mean that he wanted to get in class 
Document what comes built-in in Book class namely the date of last typeset.

B. Towards the begining of the thread, Kock wrote: "In my opinion, the 
\date command in latex is not particularly useful: often
it is quite uninteresting and confusing to know when the dvi or pdf file 
was compiled -- the interesting bit of info really is the time the 
source file was last modified. For example if you find an old tex file 
on your hard disc and compile it, it will get today's date stamp, even 
though the file was last modified several years ago" which is exactly 
the issue as far as I am concerned.

Issue B is the one I am interested.

1)  Kock mentions Alpha and gives a solution of which he then says 
"Clearly the same effect can be achieved in any other programmable 
editor with event hooks." That of course is way beyond me.

2) I think Moore was addressing Kuipers' request

3) I think Schulz was addressing Kuipers' request

4) Then Andersen asked: "On a related note, does anyone know of an 
(easy?) way to include the date/time when source file was last modified, 
rather than the last  compile time?" which I take to be a rephrasing of B.

5) To which Oostrum then responded "No, TeX doesn't have access to that 
information. You will need an external program. If you have write18 
enabled you could start such a program from within TeX." Which would 
seem to say that I must abandon all hopes.

6) Finally, Dyballa's " 'luxury' block Heiko Oberdiek sent five or six 
weeks ago" left me completely stranded. (Not at all a reflection on him 
but quite on me.)

While I am still not sure that what I got I got straight, it seems to me 
that the inescapable conclusion is that I should get rid of my bad habit 
to typeset rather than open pdfs in Preview. So I will file a request 
for TeXShop to have a button [Open pdf] in the toolbar.

Grateful regards to all
--schremmer





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