[OS X TeX] macOS 10.5 & 10.6 support

[Daniel Drucker]

Dear Herb,

I have a laptop on which I want to run OS 10.6 (actually I’m still running
10.5.9, but intend to upgrade to 10.6 so that I can run certain applications
like Skype) because that’s the last version of the OS capable of running 
Classic applications, some of which I still use regularly. It would be helpful 
to be able to continue using TeXShop on that machine, but I don’t need the MWG 
to continue to improve the version that runs under Leopard and Snow Leopard. 
I’m perfectly willing to use newer versions of TeXShop on my iMac (which 
currently runs OS 10.9.5) and to confine my use of an older TeXShop version to 
the laptop. I mostly use plaintex, and my documents, at least up to now, run 
interchangeably on the two machines. 

So I’d like a version of MacTeX that supports Leopard and Snow Leopard to 
be available separately, but it will be okay if the most current versions of 
MacTeX don’t support Leopard and Snow Leopard. I don’t want to impose an
unnecessarily heavy workload on Dick Koch.

Best regards,
Dan Drucker
(math prof at Wayne State University in Detroit)


On Aug 26, 2016, at 11:43 AM, Herbert Schulz <herbs at wideopenwest.com> wrote:

> Folks,
> 
> The MacTeX Working Group (MWG) proposes dropping support for macOS 10.5 (Leopard) and macOS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) in 2017. Thus that release would require a 64 bit Intel computer running macOS 10.7 (Lion) or higher. Note that with the upcoming Sierra release, we will still be supporting the last six versions of macOS.
> 
> We need to know how this change would effect the community at large. Therefore we ask for input from members of this list. If you object, it would be best to reply sooner rather than later.
> 
> If we take this step, a final version of MacTeX-2016 will be released in May, 2017, containing all updates before the server is shut down. All versions of MacTeX from past years are archived at the site below. Access this site as "Guest."
> 
> 	ftp://ftp.tug.org/historic/systems/mactex
> 
> It is becoming more and more difficult to support Leopard and Snow Leopard as time goes on. The systems used to compile the PPC and 32bit binaries are getting rather old and can fail at any time. The new policy would only require one set of binaries, reducing Dick Koch's work load considerably. In addition there would no longer be the necessity of creating the PPC & 32bit versions of Ghostscript (that's four versions since each has a X11 and a no-X11 version).
> 
> As far as the MacTeX installer is concerned, besides the smaller set of binaries, it would no longer need to carry some old versions of GUI software specifically for 10.5 and 10.6 (e.g., TeXShop 2.47).
> 
> MacTeXtras now carries quite a few multiple versions of software which could also be paired down considerably (e.g., TeXmaker, BibDesk, Skim, Aquamacs).
> 
> Please reply to the list, or directly to me.
> 
> Good Luck,
> 
> Herb Schulz (for the MWG)
> (herbs at wideopenwest dot com)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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