[OS X TeX] TeX Distribution preference pane

[Richard Koch]

The Preference Pane is no longer installed in MacTeX-2016. It’s functionality
was moved to TeX Live Utility. Use “Reconfigure Distributions” in the Configure
Menu. Old preference panes are not removed by MacTeX-2016, although
they can easily be removed by users.

It became too difficult to support Pref Panes since they are plugins for
Apple’s System Preferences, and Apple kept changing the requirements
for such plugins.

If you use XQuartz, then there is another important piece of news. Until
recently, we used a very old XQuartz on Snow Leopard to compile 64 bit
binaries; the resulting binaries (ie., xdvi) continued to work with later
versions of XQuartz. However, the very latest version of XQuartz failed.

Luckily, XQuartz is easy to update since it uses the Sparkle Update Mechanism.
Also luckily, XQuartz supports Snow Leopard and higher. So xdvi in
MacTeX-2016 was compiled with this latest version of XQuartz.

Notice that if you update XQuartz, then you cannot run xdvi in earlier
distributions like MacTeX-2015, so use of the Pref Pane mechanism
might be tricky for you. The older versions of XQuartz are still available
and you can downgrade if you have upgraded, so your problem will
come if you want to use both the 2015 and 2016 versions more or
less simultaneously.

Dick Koch


> On Jul 8, 2016, at 8:02 AM, John Thoo <jthoo at yccd.edu> wrote:
> 
> Hi.  I am using Yosemite, and am thinking about updating to El Capitan now that Sierra has been announced.  I can't remember which version of TeX Live I have installed currently, so I went to System Preferences... and clicked on the TeX Distribution pane to find out.  However, when I did that, I got this box.
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------
> | Preferences Error                                |
> |                                                  |
> | Could not load TeX Distribution preference pane. |
> ----------------------------------------------------
> 
> What should I do?
> 
> By the way, are there any tips for making a smooth update to El Capitan, particularly vis-a-vis TeX?  I don't use TeXShop; instead, I use a terminal window in XQuartz to typeset (pdflatex), and then Preview to view.
> 
> Thanks very much.
> 
> ---John.
> (I received the digest.)
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Algebra in Context.  Teaching introductory algebra using history as the
> vehicle.  Johns Hopkins Univ Press.  www.amazon.com/dp/1421417286
> 
> MAA review: http://www.maa.org/press/maa-reviews/algebra-in-context
> 
> 
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