[OS X TeX] Remarks about TeX on Leopard

[Bruno Voisin]

Le 3 nov. 07 à 03:50, Richard Koch a écrit :

> [...]
>
> I have put a small install package named LeopardTeXFix on my web page
>
> 	www.uoregon.edu/~koch
>
> This package fixes both problems. The package only runs on Leopard,  
> and is only useful if you installed from i-Installer or MacTeX.
> The web page also contains a detailed explanation of the bugs, in  
> case you'd prefer to fix them by hand.

Hi Dick,

Great work! That's exactly how things should be on a Mac: launch an  
installer, click on a button, and all the "dirty" work is done  
transparently, in a clean and elegant way, without needing additional  
user intervention; and at the same time have an accompanying document  
(LeopardTeXFix.rtf) describing exactly what is done, completely and  
clearly, for those who want to know more. It just works!

Two remarks:

- Regarding the first fix, namely replacing in simpdftex all  
occurrences of

	echo -n

with

	printf "%s"

it seems that for some reason the version of simpdftex on my MacTeX  
setup (dated 28 August 2007 IIRC) contained the fix already. By  
contrast, the version of simpdftex on my gwTeX setup (dated May 2007  
IIRC) did not contain the fix. After installing Leopard, I had  
reinstalled MacTeX from texlive-2007-dev.dmg at <http://www.tug.org/mactex/morepackages.html 
 >, and gwTeX from the latest TeX i-Package in i-Installer.

- Regarding the second fix, naming adding PATH and MANPATH settings so  
that all things TeX are found, it could be nice to also add the  
location /usr/local/man to MANPATH: that's where i-Installer puts the  
man pages of all the binaries that it installs in /usr/local/bin;  
accordingly that's also where MacTeX puts the man pages for  
GhostScript and for all the non-TeX binaries that it borrows from i- 
Installer, I think. By default, Leopard (and Tiger for that matter,  
and probably Panther as well) looks for man pages in /usr/local/share/ 
man, not /usr/local/man.

For example, we could simply add a file /etc/manpaths.d/i-Installer  
containing the single line

	/usr/local/man

Apart from these remarks, something that is probably disconnected:  
after applying LeopardTeXFix.pkg, I did a test with a LaTeX file of  
mine, containing hyperlinks extending over several lines and input  
using the hyperref package. In TeX + GhostScript mode (so that  
simpdftex is tested), setting "breaklinks = true" results in  
hyperlinks spread over several lines but non-working (namely, the  
hyperlinks are no hyperlinks anymore), while setting "breaklinks =  
false" results in working hyperlinks which, unfortunately, occupy a  
single extremely long line extending way beyond the right margin.

I doubt this has anything to see with the fix, it's probably that I  
had only ever typeset this file with pdfTeX and never tried in TeX +  
GhostScript mode. I'm reporting this here just in case.

Bruno
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