[OS X TeX] Lost in Mac space

[George Ghio]

Hi peter

Perhaps this would be the time to bring this up. Myself and many  
others are not as computer literate as many here in these groups.  
Therefore, while the answer to a question may well be "cd to the  
root"  and while you may know the meaning of the answer, myself and  
many others are bewildered. People learn in many and varied ways. Some  
can learn by reading about the process while others must do the  
process to gain the ability.

My first tex install was on a blue imac and to be honest, involved  
more luck than skill, but it worked and I produced an ebook about  
solar power design and installation. Even managed to sell several  
hundred copies.

Second install was with some expert guidance from members in this  
group. It worked and helped me get a pass with merit for my Dip.Art in  
professional writing and editing.

This is my third install. How things have changed, it came with an  
installer, magic stuff. And many thanks to all those that work in the  
background to produce such exemplary soft ware.

For you, in your experience, the terminal may be the  benevolent angel  
of mac harmony, but, for some of us, it is the gateway to the devils  
lair. An example may help. Suppose that your favorite leather jacket  
was torn. You go to a group on line and ask how to repair it and the  
answer was "You need a pony, a stitching wheel, an awl and two  
saddler's needles" and you are expected to deduce the skill of saddle  
stitching.

Please, I need to do it to learn it. How do you "cd to the root" and  
will it allow you to get package files in the correct places?

And yes, I hope to be able to produce a guide for rank beginners who  
would like to use TeX but lack the skills to wrangle the terminal.

George L Ghio
Renegade Writing

On 13/12/2008, at 9:53 PM, Peter Dyballa wrote:

>
> Am 13.12.2008 um 06:26 schrieb George Ghio:
>
>> Updated tlmgr with out a hitch.
>>
>> Now the problem. If I want to download a package from, say, the  
>> ctan catalogue, what do I need to put into the terminal to get the  
>> package?
>
> No way! Tlmgr is meant to keep the TeX Live 20xy distribution up-to- 
> date. To install additional software you should download a "TDS  
> compliant archive" – whatever this is! I never did it, I never  
> looked for it. From descriptions I know that you can cd to the root  
> of the TeX distribution, for example the private ~/Library/texmf  
> branch or the revision independent /usr/local/texlive/texmf-local  
> branch (because otherwise tlmgr might find a problem with unknown  
> components), and then just unzip the archive. Its components will  
> automatically be distributed into the correct places. CTAN is  
> supposed to deliver these TDS compliant archives (and maybe also  
> "normal" ones, because the package authors should provide them with  
> their updates).
>
> Maybe afterwards you can write something about your experiences for  
> the MacTeX wiki (http://mactex-wiki.tug.org/) ...
>
> --
> Greetings
>
>  Pete
>
> Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want.
>
>
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