[OS X TeX] Re: Newbie is confused by Getting Started document

[Gary L. Gray]

On Jan 21, 2007, at 9:52 PM, Bob Harris wrote:

> Earlier this evening, I wrote:
>> I'm new to TeX on Mac OSX.
>>   ...
>> So it seems to me like all I need is something that
>> converts latex to pdf and is easy to install.
>
> Looking at some other latex pages, it looks like all I might need are
> these commands
>   latex sample.tex
>   dvips -o sample.ps sample.dvi
>   dvips -o -Ppdf sample.ps sample.dvi
>   ps2pdf sample.ps
>
> Though I haven't tried them out yet, those commands (latex, dvips, and
> ps2pdf) are all available on the command line without me installing
> anything.  Given that I probably would be using TextWrangler as my
> editor anyway, is there really any good reason for me to download the
> other stuff?  From the standpoint of converting latex to pdf, is there
> something these command line tools are lacking?


Of course anything that can be done with TeXShop can also be invoked  
from the command line. If that is your cup of tea, go for it. You  
will lose the ability sync between source and preview (invaluable in  
long docs) and several other nice things that it provides, but it  
sounds like you aren't really interested in anything new.

Regards,
   Gary


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