[OS X TeX] Engines in TeXShop

[Herbert Schulz]

> On Oct 4, 2016, at 9:01 AM, Herbert Schulz <herbs at wideopenwest.com> wrote:
> 
> 
>> On Oct 4, 2016, at 7:53 AM, Simon Spiegel <simon at simifilm.ch> wrote:
>> 
>>> Howdy,
>>> 
>>> That directive tells TeXShop to use the biber in the TeX Distribution. 
>>> 
>>> You might try to use the line
>>> 
>>> % !BIB TS-program = /opt/local/bin/biber
>>> 
>>> and see if that works.
>> 
>> This does not work. I get the error message "The program /opt/local/bin/biber does not exist“.
>> 
>> If TeXShop uses the programs from MacTeX (or whatever distribution is used) by default, the current help text is a bit confusing. I talks alternately about adding engines and defining the default programs of a document, thought the two things are not really related. Wll, they are in some way, but obviously engines have no influence on the default programs defined in a document.
>> 
>>> PS: Where did you put the newer biblatex package?
>> 
>> In my local tree.
>> 
>> Simon
>> 
>> --
>> Simon Spiegel
>> Steinhaldenstr. 50
>> 8002 Zürich
>> 
>> Telephon: ++41 44 451 5334
>> Mobophon: ++41 76 459 6039
>> 
>> 
>> http://www.simifilm.ch
>> http://www.utopia2016.ch
>> 
>> „ In zweifelhaften Fällen entscheide man sich für das Richtige.“ Karl Kraus
> 
> Howdy,
> 
> TeXShop executes programs that are in /Library/TeX/texbin (which points to the active binaries of your TeX Distribution) by default. Engines (see below) execute programs that are along the PATH variable passed to the Engine or the path explictely given (e.g., /opt/local/bin/biber)
> 
> The Engines are really just shell scripts stored with the extension .engine, taking a single argument (the file to be typeset --- with extension) and is executed with Typeset->Typeset (Cmd-T) when you have the line
> 
> % !TEX TS-program = engine-name
> 
> where engine-name doesn't have the .engine extension (e.g., pdflatexmk). You can create an engine that calls pdflatex, biber, etc. on the file (you need to strip off the .tex from the file name). 
> 
> Let me know what processing you wish to do and I'll try to help out.
> 
> Good Luck,
> 
> Herb Schulz
> (herbs at wideopenwest dot com)

Howdy,

Assuming you don't have a full TeX Distribution from MacPorts installed you can do the following:

1)In TeXShop (I assume you have a recent version) Click on TeXShop->Open ~/Library/TeXShop and then open the Engines folder.

2)Duplicate the pdflatexmk.engine file (Select and Cmd-D) and rename the copy mypdflatexmk.engine.

3)Double Click the my pdflatexmk.engine file and it should open in TeXShop. At the top of the file add the line

export PATH=/opt/local/bin:$PATH

with a Return to put it on a spearate line. Then simply Save the file and Quit TeXShop.

4)At the top of your source file put the line

% !TEX TS-program = mypdflatexmk

and typeset using Typeset->Typeset (Cmd-T). The complete document should be typeset (with bibliography and index if present). If you are using anything that needs specialized processing you may ahve to do more; let me know.

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs at wideopenwest dot com)