[OS X TeX] your wiki needs you?

[cfrees at imapmail.org]

On Tue 16th Sep, 2008 at 11:55, Joseph C. Slater PE, PhD seems to have written:

>> In any case, I was wondering if somebody or somebodies might be able to
>> comment on any of the following:
>> * http://mactex-wiki.tug.org/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:Application_Table
>> 	* list of applications I cannot find/translate/fathom
>> 	* query about handling of deprecated software
>> 	* query about deletion from table post-removal
>> Note that I have *not* updated the table of applications in any way
>> except to note the inclusion or otherwise of software elsewhere on the
>> wiki. Updated links and information, if any, are in the software's new 
>> home.
>
> In my mind the goal should be to delete this page once everything on it is 
> listed elsewhere (categorized). It's quite a beast. It was created by me some 
> 7 years ago on my hard drive so I could keep track of links, and put on the 
> psu tex on mac pages as a courtesy. It just grew to a monster. Perhaps 
> helpful, but far from ideal.

I agree. Part of why I'm not updating stuff here. (And a lot of what is
here is now much less accurate than what's elsewhere on the wiki.  In
moving stuff, for example, I've been trying to update links and correct
licencing information - but not in the table itself.) I'd like to
delete information in the table which has been moved or updated
elsewhere.

>
>> 
>> * http://mactex-wiki.tug.org/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:TeX_tools
>> 	* should ImageMagick be here?
>
> I don't think so. It's not a standard part of TeXLive. I think that's the 
> clean definition that we should use.

Done.

But I've been putting other things in which are not in TL but which are
command line tools primarily designed for use with TeX.

If those don't belong here, maybe we need another page for "Additional
TeX tools" or something. But I'm not sure how tied to one distribution
this page should be since not everyone uses TL - certainly not all of
TL - and what is or isn't in TL is constantly changing.

>> 
>> * http://mactex-wiki.tug.org/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:TeX_Helpers
>> 	* this is not my query
>> 	* I think the text is mistaken
>> 	* anybody?
>
> I thought the text was mistaken when I saw it, but I'm swamped. That was why 
> I posted that. I was waiting for a knowledgeable person to respond and fix 
> it. I think it's safe to make the correction to the text.

Done.

>> 
>> * http://mactex-wiki.tug.org/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:Editors
>> 	* questions about how to manage the editor/front end divide
>> 	* I think a single link to the front ends page would be less
>> 	 confusing and easier to maintain than individual links
>
> I was trying to make the targeted links so people could see the targeted 
> editor's information.
>
> This divide is a very hard one to manage in a rational fashion. I don't know 
> that there will be a "perfect" solution, just a tolerable one.
>
> I wouldn't object to you changing the organization of the page. I've been 
> happy with what I've seen so far. Great work, and certainly unrecognized 
> (except by me, who can see that you've made almost 300 changes!)
>
See what you think. The individual links are nice but I think the pages
will be harder to maintain that way. Anytime a front end is added or
deleted, this page will have to be altered, too. Pretty soon, they will
be out of sync. Moreover, I think this page and the viewers page should
be treated symmetrically. Anyway, you can easily revert my changes if
you prefer - but don't ask me to maintain the links.:)
>>
>> 	* a plea for input from users of Alpha
>> 
>> I was also wondering about the distinction between the page on fonts
>> and the linked but empty font faq. Is there a font faq? If so, how does
>> it relate to the fonts page? That is, what sort of things belong on
>> each?
>
>
> We really need a font FAQ. All we need is someone who knows something about 
> them. I see questions about fonts all the time on this list, but it doesn't 
> seem anyone has the time to step forward.

But what belongs on a font FAQ versus on the font page?

Is there an existing font FAQ?

Exactly what should such a FAQ cover?

I started putting some information on the fonts page. Is some of that
inappropriate? Should the fonts page be concerned primarily with
listing/describing packages and tools?

Not that long ago (maybe last year), I taught myself how to use
fontinst. Mostly, anyway. There are still some things I couldn't figure
out. I combined that with the information provided by the gtamacfonts
team about their workflow and hints picked up elsewhere. I also
practised on a great many fonts. I wanted to figure out how it all
worked more than anything - I had had to follow instructions for getting
TNR working more-or-less blindly when I needed to use it. If I found
myself in a similar position, I wanted to know that I understood enough
to install what I needed for use with pdfLaTeX.

Now that XeTeX is available, I don't know how much call there is for
this sort of information, though. XeTeX enables Mac OS X fonts - and
any of the many fonts you can download in otf or ttf format - to be
used without any extra work.

But maybe that is not the sort of information you had in mind for the
FAQ anyway?

> With the hurricane hitting my area (I still can't believe it... I'm in Ohio 
> for goodness sake - and under a state of emergency) I really haven't even 
> thought about the wiki for quite a few days.

Sorry to hear that. (Hard to believe things can be that bad in _Ohio_!
>From a hurricane?!) When I first went out to the States, a hurricane
hit within - oh, probably 4-6 weeks. Some welcome!

- cfr