[OS X TeX] your wiki needs you?

[Joseph C. Slater PE, PhD]

On Sep 17, 2008, at 5:23 PM, Maarten Sneep wrote:

> On 17 sep 2008, at 22:25, Dr. Clea F. Rees wrote:
>
> [snip] a functional classification of editors, viewers and front- 
> ends (or integrated systems).
>
>> TextMate has a viewer. Therefore it goes on the Front Ends page. That
>> it uses WebKit doesn't change that really - that isn't an  
>> application.
>> The user need know nothing of WebKit (or Cocoa or...).
>
> I still would put TextMate in the editor category. Yes, webkit sort  
> of works, but you do not get synchronized viewing or juming between  
> source and pdf. I think that that is an essential feature of present  
> day systems - yes, things change, it's called progress, and I'm  
> happy with it. You can do the same with TextMate, but then you're in  
> the same category as BBEdit et al.

I think even if the viewer is rudimentary, front end is perfectly  
fine. However, it's worth noting in the description that it lacks the  
synchronization typical of other front ends.


>
>
>> I agree it is artificial. There are grey areas. Distinctions are  
>> often
>> like that. But I think it is still useful - especially to somebody
>> trying to figure out what's needed to start out.
>
> Sure.
>
>> Both the Editors page and the Viewers page contain explanatory notes
>> and links at the top. They both have additional links at the bottom.
>>
>> Not everything on the viewers page has synctex/pdfsync integration,
>> either. (Preview? Adobe Reader?)
>
> Correct. Preview will now at least re-load a pdf when told to open a  
> file that it has already open, and keep it in the same location.  
> That is a huge simplification for basic viewing, and scripting the  
> updates. Acrobat (no cost edition) is still horrible. Skim is my  
> favorite at the moment.
>
>> At least, this is how I've been interpreting the distinction. I think
>> the only other way to do it would be to put everything on one page -
>> front ends, editors and viewers. But that would make for a rather
>> unmanageable page, I think.
>
> Agreed, it is not that I don't think the classification is wrong,  
> but my impression of TextMate is more of an editor (with decent  
> LaTeX support, but not even out of the box IIRC), than a complete  
> front end.
>
> Yes, I could edit right now, but no-one wants an edit-war ;-)
>

With the lack of people editing, I could dream of so much activity  
that I have to lock a page from an edit war. It would be a wonderful  
problem to have. The lack of a large number of people editing appears  
to be apathy, which is frightening. There are about 5 people editing,  
at 5 different orders of magnitude activity it seems. There are about  
53 editors signed up, but not many fixing even obvious typos (some  
which I've left simply to encourage every skill level to participate).  
I think the editors are overrated by the community wrt our expertise.  
I know my expertise has always been overrated.

Joe