[OS X TeX] current math fonts for TeX

[Maarten Sneep]

On 26 jan 2008, at 18:33, André Bellaïche wrote:

> I didn't think of fonts, but of texts and sty files. The LaTex  
> companion has done a good job in this regard. But more is needed.  
> Consider the "survey" file you have indicated to David Oliver. Even  
> if I had an alphabetical listing showing the title "survey", I would  
> not be curious about the content. But don't you agree with me? It's  
> a pity that all the work of the author be lost because of a badly  
> chosen title, and also because many TeX users don't know where to  
> look when they need a file which would do "that and that".

Way too much work, unless you are volunteering. Yes, the authors  
should supply a clear and concise summary of what a package does, and  
why you should use it. The LaTeX Companion is as close as you are  
going to get at this stage. In a lot of ways, the LaTeX companion  
defines what a complete latex distribution is: if everything that is  
described in the LaTeX companion works without installing a new  
package, then a latex distribution is probably fit for use*.

I'd still say that this burden is on the package authors - which  
distributes the load nicely. If you go through the trouble of writing  
a package, you might as well advertise it. We should then point users  
to http://texcatalogue.sarovar.org/ to find if a solution exists to  
the problem they are experiencing. In most cases this should return an  
answer. How to proceed from there is open for debate: steps to be  
included: 1) check if it came with your distribution (likely) and use  
it. 2) if not, get it from CTAN, install, and then use it.

Limitations: if it is not on CTAN, and not in the catalogue, then you  
won't find it. It will also not be included in texlive, so it isn't  
one of the many packages you already seem to have. In other words:  
this package doesn't exist.

Maarten

* as far as I know Memoir isn't in the companion (*still* haven't  
bought the 2nd edition), but for the first edition that was pretty  
much the case.