[OS X TeX] Re: FYI: Support for Carbon Emacs package will end

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 09.04.2010 um 15:53 schrieb Adam M. Goldstein:

> Every now and again I compile it from the source. It is pretty bare- 
> bones, which I like, but there is integration with cut and paste, so  
> it fits into the mac environment.

More "adaptation" certainly is overkill. And what is the sense of  
these extras when they are not available in other Emacs variants as  
well? I am also using X11 and Carbon and AppKit variants and I don't  
want to think first: does this Emacs has this feature available? Or do  
I have to go to the dock and search for that other variant?

I prefer a more open situation/software installation into which other  
tools can latch up. Me, *I* am the individual, not GNU Emacs  
distribution a or b or c. So I have one personal init file for all  
plus a set of customisation files which set up use of slightly  
different colours and fonts that all versions have a clear look by  
which I can at once find with which variant I am working.

> I install AucTeX myself as well.

And those who seek a more comfortable situation can use Fink or  
MacPorts to install AUCTeX - although it could be frustrating to  
encounter that the maintainers of this software are quite sure that  
you first need to install their variant of TeX, their variant of GNU  
Emacs and their variants of whatever (Perl variants, X11, X  
server, ...)! Usually a reasonable amount of these pre-requirements  
will already be installed, but the local "port" file will need a patch  
to become independent of this or that TeX distribution.

> The ns port is extremely reliable. I don't think I've had it hang or  
> crash for at least a year. So the adaptation is pretty good.


Yes! Attaching the Help menu is *very* slow. Preparing a bug report is  
always faster by some magnitudes with the X11 variant. Many other  
actions (starting a compilation of LaTeX or some programme source,  
invoking a command in *shell* buffer or a shell command on some  
region) are also slow. I have the feeling that Carbon Emacsen perform  
here better, but then they have problems in international environments  
were Latin and non-Latin scripts are mixed. Here Cocoa (and maybe  
AppKit, too) shows its power.


I'd like to see Emacs packages install their additional open software  
for example in /Library/Application Support/Emacs, outside of their  
application bundles. This would work with an installation package, at  
least for this open software part, and not by simply dragging the  
complete Emacs application to /Applications.

--
Greetings

   Pete

For some reason, this fortune reminds everyone of Marvin Zelkowitz.