[OS X TeX] New Macros, new Engines, new TeXShop versions, and all that

[Herbert Schulz]

On Feb 21, 2010, at 1:36 PM, David Messerschmitt wrote:

> ...
> The lazy or naive user, on the other hand, is (almost by definition) one who is happy to delegate the choice of macros, upgrade of macros, etc, to the developers. So this user would prefer to just install and use, and still benefit from new macros, improved macros, etc. If the developers decide that a macro is no longer worthwhile or can be replaced by something better, then this naive user is happy to see that change blindly introduced and to live with the consequences. Thus, I disagree with your characterization of the needs of the naive user.
> 

Howdy,

Here is a place I think you're wrong. I believe that the the ``lazy or naive'' user gets familiar with something and certainly doesn't want it to change because of anything some ``developer'' thinks is right.

As a side note about using /Library/Application Support/. I think the ``tradition'' of using something like ~/Library/Application Support/TeXShop/ came about quite a while AFTER TeXShop was originally written! Not only that but the space in the path name could lead to problems when running certain scripts that haven't been ``fixed'' to work properly with them. There are LOTS of those around. I think a good deal of thought went into using ~/Library/TeXShop/ rather than what many people were doing at the time, simply something like ~/TeXShop/!

I also think using two directories is a bad idea and I think Dick Koch got the idea using the example of the engines that are disabled by default (some of which depend upon items in the TeXShop/bin/ folder).

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs at wideopenwest dot com)