[OS X TeX] your wiki needs you?

[cfrees at imapmail.org]

I think the most important point is that the terms are defined on the
wiki. I think using an alternative definition of the sort proposed will
make the wiki harder to maintain. This for at least two reasons. First,
the definition of 'front end' will change over time because what is
considered a sophisticated IDE-type environment will change over time.
Second, given a particular definition, what counts as a front end will
change, too. (It *can* now - but that is much less likely.)

Also, we cannot say in that case that a front end is equivalent to an
editor plus a viewer because that won't be true. Moreover, many
applications currently listed under "viewers" will not clearly count as
viewers. (Because if TeXMate doesn't count as having a viewer...)

So we'd need that a front end is:
editor + viewer + extra stuff
(so the viewers still count as viewers).

Is BibTeX integration necessary? I  can think of lots of things that
somebody might want from a TeX application. But what matters to people
will vary.

The ability to go between source and output doesn't matter all that
much to me - nice, but far from essential. Other things matter much
more. So I think what "extra stuff" counts as essential varies with the
individual as well as the state of the technology.

- cfr

On Fri 19th Sep, 2008 at 03:08, Bruno Voisin seems to have written:

> Le 18 sept. 08 ? 00:16, Dr. Clea F. Rees a ?crit :
>
>> Highly unlikely. I think TextMate should be on the Front Ends page
>> because it is simpler that way and makes more intuitive sense to me.
>
> Coming late in the game (I was away and just came back), and FWIW given I 
> haven't (and won't at least for some time) contributed to the wiki: I 
> disagree with this.
>
> Front ends here, in the sense that TeXShop and iTeXMac (and now TeXworks, and 
> also Textures which pioneered all of them) are front ends, refer for TeX to 
> what an IDE is for programming: a sophisticated environment using multiple 
> windows and a sophisticated GUI to provide the user with everything's that 
> needed to write TeX document, navigate between source and output, inspect the 
> logs, debug, etc.
>
> I'm no TextMate user myself, but from what I read here and there it seems 
> TextMate is a text editor with TeX input help (such as syntax coloring) and 
> built-in TeX preview (using WebKit), similar to what BBEdit provides for HTML 
> and CSS. That's nice, but doesn't make TextMate a proper TeX IDE IMHO.
>
> Bruno Voisin