[OS X TeX] Leopard and MacTeX

[Axel Kielhorn]

> Am 21.05.2016 um 22:17 schrieb Richard Koch <koch at uoregon.edu>:
> 
> Axel and others:
> 
>> Nevertheless, could you please adjust
>> 
>> /Library/TeX/Distributions/TeXLive-2016/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/Description.rtf
>> 
>> to say "TeX Live 2016 Distribution“?
>> 
>> TLU doesn’t use that description anymore, the pref pane does.
>> 
>> Axel
> 
> Since we don’t install the Pref Pane, I didn’t update that date.
> I have now updated it in my sources. But you won’t see the change unless
> I am forced to rebuild again for more important reasons.

No problem, I can change that myself.

> ——————
> 
> This is perhaps the time to speak about support for PPC, Leopard,
> and the very few Snow Leopard machines with 32 bit processors.
> I suspect that users with these machines aren’t experimenting with LuaTeX
> and other fast moving targets. 

Due to the changes in latex 0.95 there may be a problem with LaTeX packages supporting only >=0.95 in the future. Thus having Luatex 0.95 in TL 2016 should be future proof.

I do use context but I probably can get the binaries from context garden.
The TeX Live version will be out of date when the DVD is released.

> The main reason we have supported these older machines is that without
> a new release, tlmgr and TeX Live Utility cannot be used to update style
> and class files, fonts, etc. And these updates DO matter for users.
> 
> Unfortunately, maintaining support for Leopard has become harder and harder. For
> example, the current TeX Live Utility requires Snow Leopard, 

I can still update using tlmgr (and there will probably a way to get from 2016 to 2017.)

> Programmers like to use modern features; this makes their
> code more robust and easier to maintain. In the Linux world, 
> scripting languages like perl and ruby are updated as a matter of
> course, but Apple only updates versions of OS X one release back from
> the current version, and most Mac users wisely avoid updating
> individual components of their older systems. 

I use Macports for recent versions of Perl, Python and Ruby.

> This year, the tlmgr
> portion of TeX Live was extensively revised by Norbert Preining.
> He spent inordinate amounts of time making the changes compatible
> with Leopard, but we still don’t know for sure if critical updates work
> with Leopard.

I have to run tlmgr to see whether PGP signing is supported on PPC.
The intel version asked me about that.

> Therefore, it is highly likely that we will remove support in 2017 for
> PPC machines  and Intel machines running Leopard. Older versions of
> MacTeX are archived and always available.

TeX Live can be used quite a long time after its expiration date.
(Just look at Linux.)
As long there is a way (hack) to get more recent packages there should be no problem.
(And there is still texmf-local / ~/Library/texmf)

> If this change would cause a hardship for some individuals or organizations,
> now is the time to let us know about it.

I’ll have to replace the PowerBook in the near future.
But as long it is still running (walking) I see no reason to spend >1000 € on something that will probably not last 12 years.

Axel