[OS X TeX] TeX Distribution preference pane

[John Thoo]

> On Jul 8, 2016, at 12:00 PM, macosx-tex-request at email.esm.psu.edu wrote:
> 
>> On 8 Jul 2016, at 16:02, 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.
> 
> 
> Elliott Roper <elliott at yrl.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> I'm no expert, but that means you have a recent one. They gave up on the preference pane. Apple made it a hard to catch moving target I believe. The current way is to select the configure menu in TeX Live Utility then choose reconfigure distributions.

Thanks, Elliott.

I have TeX Live Utility Version 1.17 (1.17).  When I opened it (for the first time), I got this box.

---------------------------------------------------------
| Unable to find a valid update server                   |
|                                                        |
| Either a network problem exists or the TeX Live        |
| version on the server does not match.  If this problem | 
| persists on further attempts, you may need to try a    |
| different repository.                                  |
---------------------------------------------------------

I note that the Repository Address now is

http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet

Also, when I looked in the configure menu, I didn't see reconfigure distributions.  I did find, however, Configure > Manage Repositories.  Is that the same thing?  Should I select that?


> Richard Koch <koch at uoregon.edu> wrote:
> 
> 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.

Thanks, Dick.

As I mentioned above, I couldn't find Configure > Reconfigure Distributions.  Could it be that my version of TeX Live Utility is too old?

By the way, I've never used TeX Live Utility.  The last time that I updated TeX Live (about one or two years ago), I downloaded from <tug.org>.


> Old preference panes are not removed by MacTeX-2016, although
> they can easily be removed by users.

How would I do that?  Thanks.


> 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.

I have not used xdvi in a long time (since I started using pdflatex to typeset, and so started using Preview instead of xdvi), so I think that what I'd like to do is to update to El Capitan, and then update TeX Live.  Should I just do that, and then search to update to the latest XQuartz?


> R Martinez <rm.tech at mac.com> wrote:
> 
> I updated to El Capitan last year while using MacTeX 2015 and had zero problems with TeX, LaTeX, TeXShop, and all the MacTeX programs I use. 
> 
> Moreover, using the latest version of El Capitan, I recently updated to MacTeX 2016, again with zero problems. I suggest you update to El Capitan first, then to MacTeX 2016. 
> 
> The job done by Dick Koch and the MacTeX team is fabulous: the package just hums. My thanks to all. 

Thanks, Ral.  That's really encouraging to hear.

Thanks again to everyone.

---John.
(I receive the digest.)

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Algebra in Context.  Teaching introductory algebra using history as the
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