[OS X TeX] Several Answers at Once

Roussanka Loukanova rloukano at stp.lingfil.uu.se
Thu Jan 18 07:33:50 EST 2007


Hi,

On Thu, 18 Jan 2007, Bruno Voisin wrote:

[...]
>
> Actually you don't have to look at all its output: just look at the list of 
> receipts in ./Library/i-Installer/Receipts to see which i-Packages it 
> corresponds to:
>
> - Font Utilities: fondu, gettext, fontforge.
>
> - GhostScript: ghostscript.
>
> - ImageMagick: freetype, imagemagick, libwmf.
>

By following you, I've looked at these on my machine and noticed

-rw-rw-rw-    1 root  admin   432 Nov 20 03:03 cm-super.ii2receipt

During downloads, I tried to avoid choosing CM Super, but I've got 
them, unintentionally. Because Latin Modern is the preferred solution 
nowadays, I do not want to use CM Super unintentionally (as I got them), 
e.g., just by forgetting that the are on my TeX system. So, it seems that 
I can just use i-Installer and uninstall CM Super. I would appreciate 
some advise.

Roussanka

> Thus this matches up (I was wondering) more or less the list of requested 
> packages at the TeXShop Installation page <http:// 
> www.uoregon.edu/~koch/texshop/installing.html>, except for gettext (added, 
> that's a dependency of FontForge I think) and the PNG library (removed).
>
> If you want to know more about the exact version of each component of the 
> i-Packages, then of course you'll have to look at the ReadMe inside each 
> i-Package or at its exact file content.
>
>> In a later message discussing the Uninstalling page from the
>> NewPackages page, Enrico Franconi warned against uninstalling libraries
>> in /usr/local/tex willy-nilly. This is a valid criticism. In an unquoted 
>> portion
>> of this (admittedly obscure) page, I wrote "the Font Utilities, 
>> Ghostscript,
>> and ImageMagick portions are the most difficult to uninstall. On the
>> other hand, these packages are the least important for TeX users ...
>> (so) a user concerned about uninstalling might decide to avoid these
>> three packages."
>
> You can use the Uninstall button for each i-Package in i-Installer, but you 
> have to open first the corresponding i-Package on an i-Directory on the net. 
> Couldn't a thinned version of each installed i-Package be installed in the 
> user home directory, allowing easier uninstall? (Personally I prefer 
> ~/Library/i-Packages/ to the default ~/i-Packages or ~/Documents/i-Packages 
> -- I don't remember which one is the default -- for the location for the 
> saved i-Packages.)
>
>> The MacTeX_Additions GUI package installs a small README file in
>> /Applications/TeX explaining how to reconfigure applications for the new
>> /usr/texbin. McNarry Vince wrote
>> 
>>> The reconfiguration information doesn't only apply to those who need the
>>> GUI programs reinstalled. I already have TeXShop, et al, installed and
>>> have no need to reinstall them, but would find the reconfiguration
>>> document useful.
>> 
>> I'll put this information on my web page when it is revised; others may 
>> want
>> to put similar information on their pages. The TeXShop in the latest 
>> MacTeX_Additions
>> automatically fixes its path preference when it first runs.
>
> Is that latest version of TeXShop identical to that available from TeXShop's 
> web page? Or should this page be considered deprecated, and MacTeX the new 
> repository for TeXShop?
>
> BTW, I don't remember whether this topic had already been discussed on the 
> MacTeX mailing list: is there some reason for not including Adam Maxwell's 
> TCO Browser in MacTeX_Additions? The halted development, though Adam still 
> supports it I think? I don't use TCO often myself, but I remember posts here 
> from people who seem to use it on a daily basis, especially for adding LaTeX 
> packages to their installation.
>
> While we're at it, two suggestions:
>
> (1) The MacTeX web page <http://www.tug.org/~koch/NewPackages.html> should 
> make clearer the distinction between the TeX back-end (to be chosen among 
> gwTeX.dmg, teTeX.dmg,TeXLive-2007.dmf and TeXLiveMTS-2007.dmg) and the 
> front-end (MacTeX_Additions.dmg). I think this separation should be kept in 
> the future.
>
> Egoistically, I'm only interested in the TeXLive back-end myself, I install 
> the front-ends separately (as well as others like CocoAspell, texmaker, 
> TeXniscope, TCO Browser, ...), directly in /Applications, and I install the 
> user CLI utilities as well as gwTeX directly with i-Installer.
>
> But on a more general basis, I think the separation makes things clearer for 
> the novice user (like the existence of several distinct TeXLive packages, and 
> giving hints on what does which), and more convenient for the experienced 
> user (like Enrico, who prefers to use MacPorts or Fink to i-Installer for the 
> back-ends).
>
> (2) In the front-end and back-end installers, the ReadMe are more-or-less the 
> same in all cases (I did not check in detail). The first screen when opening 
> the packages is indeed package specific, but mention the other components as 
> well (even if saying that these others have to be installed from another 
> package), and then the second screen (with title MacTeX) describes the whole 
> of MacTeX. This makes perfect sense for the experienced user, but might be 
> confusing I think for a novice.
>
> Bruno
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>
>

-- 
------------------------------------------------
Roussanka Loukanova
Computational Linguistics
Dept. of Linguistics and Philology
Uppsala University
P.Box 635, Uppsala 751 26, Sweden

Tel:   +46 18 471 1342 (office)
        +46 18 750 0340
Email: rloukano at stp.lingfil.uu.se
URL:   http://stp.ling.uu.se/~rloukano/
--------------------------------------------------

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