[OS X TeX] gwTex vs MacTex 2010

[Herbert Schulz]

On Nov 14, 2010, at 1:29 PM, Jon Crump wrote:

> All,
> 
> Related to Darius's question: I too have been away from TeX for some
> time. My existing distribution, which I've been using happily for a
> long time, is Gerben's gwTex installed with his I-installer. I need
> now to move to TeXLive 2010 in order to use XeTeX. Should I somehow
> remove the gwTeX distribution? If so, how, and if not, what must I do
> to ensure that the two distributions do not interfere with each other?
> 
> Thanks,
> Jon

Howdy,

Unless you have an issue with HD space there is no need to remove gwTeX. The TeX Live installed by MacTeX is MUCH larger than gwTeX but is also very complete; if you have extra packages you installed in your personal tree at ~/Library/texmf/ I'd remove them and see if things still work without them since old package versions could give rise to strange things happening when they interact with newer versions of packages. If you have things installed in the system local directory (It has been too long since I used gwTeX and I don't remember what it's name was... I'm getting old) for gwTeX you'll have to move them (again, be careful about moving packages) in the proper location in the texmf-local directory and run `sudo texhash` for the TeX system to find them. Assuming you are using OS X 10.5 or later use the TeX Live Utility to update all the packages once MacTeX/TeX Live 2010 is installed; many packages have been updated since that distribution was frozen. Finally, MacTeX will install a TeX Distribution System Preference Pane that may allow you to switch between your old gwTeX system (may depend upon how old it is) and the TeX Live 2010 system

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs at wideopenwest dot com)