Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!ames!pioneer!woo From: woo@pioneer.arpa (Alex Woo) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: TeXtures and MacTeX Message-ID: <3643@ames.arpa> Date: 12 Dec 87 19:38:08 GMT Sender: usenet@ames.arpa Reply-To: woo@pioneer.UUCP (Alex Woo) Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. Lines: 41 Keywords: disappointed with TeXtures. Summary: How about a simple implementation? I have been using various versions of TeX and LaTeX for several years and like the fact that it is device independent so that files created on one machine can be viewed or printed somewhere else. Unfortunately I have been very disappointed with TeXtures. Here are some specific complaints: 1. It is incomplete since it does not include "initex" or "virtex" and therefore cannot easily use large macro packages. Since TeXtures does not include LaTeX, I mistakenly tried to \input lplain. This takes a long time and TeXtures coughs on the embedded form feeds. 2. TeXtures seems to be able 6 months behind the OS. Currently, it is impossible to print under system 5.0 or multifinder. 3. While the integrated editor/typesetter/previewer is nice, in many ways I prefer the old fashion environment that is common on mainframes. I prefer a different editor than TeXtures and I don't want the overhead of previewing. Here are some TeX related questions: a. Does anyone know of a simple implementation of say the C-version of TeX or the original pascal version? I would like to feed it a file and have it output a DVI file. b. I would like to hear some comments on MacTeX. Since I have a number of home grown macro packages, I am especially interested in "initex" and the memory constraints. c. What about MathWriter(TM) or MW2TeX(TM) from Cooke Pubs? Does it really translate WYSIWYG input correctly or just close to what you really want? Thanks for your comments. ====================================================================== Alex Woo, MS 227-2 | wu@ames-aero.arpa NASA Ames Research Center | woo@ames-nas.arpa Moffett Field, CA 94035 | {seismo,topaz,lll-crg,ucbvax}! Phone: (415) 694-6010 | ames!pioneer!woo ====================================================================== {hplabs,hao,ihnp4,decwrl,allegra,tektronix,menlo70}!ames!pioneer!woo ====================================================================== The author is solely responsible for this message.