[OS X TeX] TeX is TeX?

[Herbert Schulz]

On Apr 10, 2009, at 12:02 PM, George Gratzer wrote:

> I am writing a joint paper with HL. He uses a standard Linux TeX.
>
> I send him the source, he makes changes, mails back the source and  
> the pdf. I use Adobe Acrobat to compare his pdf with mine, to find  
> out the changes made.
>
> Result: everything changed.
>
> So I typeset his new source and then make the comparison, and I get  
> my answer.
>
> How come his pdf is seen by Acrobat as so different. To my eye, what  
> is marked up as different looks the same.
>
> We both use TeX out of the box, same font (CM), etc.
>
> Puzzling.
>
> GG

Howdy,

ARe you both using pdflatex or TeX and DVI? What version of pdftex are  
you both using? If you are using MacTeX 2008, did you update your  
pdftex (and dvips) with the bug fixed versions available at <http://www.tug.org/mactex/fontcache/ 
 >? That could produce some differences in the internal pdf file.

Have you tried to use latexdiff on the two source files? I have a Drop  
Script that runs latexdiff on the two source files producing a new  
source file that shows the differences when compiled. Unfortunately  
the two files must be in the same folder so they must have different  
names. You can get the Drop Script as Droplatexdiff.zip at <http://homepage.mac.com/herbs2 
 >.

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs at wideopenwest dot com)