burnard@lll-lcc.UUCP (David Burnard) (09/25/86)
TeX for the Mac? Yes, it exists. There are now two versions of TeX for the Macintosh. "TeXtures" from Addison Wesley (really Kellerman & Smith) retail $495 and "MacTeX" from FTL Systems (Canada) retail $795 (US). I have been using TeXtures since sometime in July, and am quite satisfied with it. I have also played around a bit with the FTL implementation and have a few comments about it... First off, using TeX on a Macintosh is wholly different than using it on a Vax or even a PC, because of the integrated previewer. For those who have never used a previewer, it allows you to inspect a representation of your output without having to go to the trouble of printing it out. In addition, most previewers allow you to view the pages at various magnifications so you can check everything from overall page layout to the exact positioning of sub and superscripts. As far as I am concerned, having a fast, integrated previewer is the single most important feature you can add to TeX. Especially since most of us don't happen to have a LaserWriter at arms length. So when I go home at night, I can continue to work on my documents, macros, etc. preview them to be sure they're what I want, and then print them when I return to work. So let's talk about TeXtures (correct me if I forget anything). The application provides three functions. First is the multiwindow text editor. It isn't the best 'TEXT' editor around, and sometimes I'll work on modifying my documents in QuED or something, but I do most of my work inside TeXtures. Most important, turnaround time for macro writing, fine tuning and overall error correction almost vanishes. You can look at the TeX output in a previewer window while checking the source file in another window. The editor is pretty standard, offering Cut/Copy/Paste and Search, GoTo Line#, AutoIndent and WordWrap and can handle files of virtually unlimited length (NO it is NOT TextEdit). The second part of TeXtures is the actual TeX engine. When you select "Typeset" from one of the menus, a TeX log window appears, and things progress pretty much as they normally would on any other TeX system, a few bells and whistles appear on the side of the window... a line# and page# indicator, a pause button, etc. After the TeX run completes the log window stays around so you can look back at TeX's error and diagnostic messages. In terms of speed, I estimate that the TeX engine runs about as fast as it would on a moderately loaded VAX, churning out a page of DVI every twenty to thirty seconds for typical output. After the TeX run completes, a "Typeset" window appears containing the preview version of your output. You can view this output at any magnification between 0.1 and 5 (I think). I spend most of my time looking at actual size (1.0) and twice normal size. The best results are of course obtained at the magnifications where the pixel maps of the characters are available, which for text based on the plain TeX default of 10pt means actual size, double size(20pt) and LaserWriter (42pt). THIS IS CUTE. At "LaserWriter" magnification you view your document at 417% of actual size (72dpi times 4.17 = 300dpi), so that you actually get to see every last pixel that will be output by the LaserWriter. Fonts: TeXtures v0.8 which is what is currently shipping, contains all of the "plain" TeX computer modern fonts. This means CM roman, italic, bold, slanted, tty, and the complete math set, all in 10pt plus the smaller sizes for super/sub scripts (7 and 5pt I believe). Each of these fonts comes in the three previewer magnifications I mentioned above: 1.0, 2.0 and 4.17. Giving a total of about 400K worth of fonts. Unfortunately this means if you need to print something at 12 or 14pt you will get a scaled version of the 300dpi font, which is OK but noticeably "jaggy" on the LaserWriter. To solve this problem, for font monsters like myself, K&S are making the fonts available at a variety of other sizes (other fonts too, like sans-serif, etc...). It is currently not clear how these additional fonts/sizes will be made available. You also have access to the resident LaserWriter (and by now) the LaserWriter Plus fonts. If you must you can also print on your ImageWriter in either standard (better) or final (best) quality, remember the 1.0 and 2.0 magnification previewer fonts? The popular macro packages LaTeX and AMSTeX are available, and in addition you can create your own custom macro packages and keep them around in TeX's fast loading .fmt format. (Whew...) There are lots of things I have left out here, but you can ask me other questions if you need to... For now let me try and contrast the two implementations... FTL MacTeX also contains a built in text editor and previewer, BUT... FTL uses a TextEdit based editor, ARGGH! Yes, I know they are easy to write (I wrote one for an obscure Macintosh C book ages ago), but they suck rotten eggs if your files get even as large as 10K. FTL does not have screen fonts for the Computer Modern fonts, thus you can ONLY preview documents written using LaserWriter fonts. I see this as a serious drawback. Sure you could preview using Times and print using CM Roman, but they are not the same. Especially when it comes to the math fonts. Now hang on to your hats...Again FTL lets you preview your document at various magnifications, but it uses copybits to expand or contract the "actual size" image, kind of like Fat Bits. This is not a previewer. It's fine for looking at compressed images. But when you enlarge your image, you cant see anything more, subsubscripts and the like are still unreadable. FTL does however come with a complete set of "plain" TeX CM fonts for the LaserWriter, they made PostScript outlines, which are available at ALL sizes for printing. You cannot print to an ImageWriter. So in conclusion... Currently I think TeXtures is a much more complete and robust product than FTL MacTeX. Both products are however still very young and I would expect many of the problems I have outlined above to be corrected in the future. --------------------------------------------- Questions, comments, etc. should be sent to me rather than the net, unless they are of geberal interest to the net... Dave Burnard burnard@lll-lcc.ARPA ======================================================================== The usual disclaimers apply: I have no connection with Addison Wesley/Kellerman & Smith other than as a satisfied customer. I have no connection with FTL Systems whatsoever. =======================================================================
sml@wdl1.UUCP (Steve Lazarus) (09/26/86)
/ wdl1:net.micro.mac / burnard@lll-lcc.UUCP (David Burnard) / 9:59 am Sep 25, 1986 / TeX for the Mac? Yes, it exists. There are now two versions of TeX for the Macintosh. "TeXtures" from Addison Wesley (really Kellerman & Smith) retail $495 and "MacTeX" from FTL Systems (Canada) retail $795 (US). I have been using TeXtures since sometime in July, and am quite satisfied with it. I have also played around a bit with the FTL implementation and have a few comments about it... First off, using TeX on a Macintosh is wholly different than using it on a Vax or even a PC, because of the integrated previewer. For those who have never used a previewer, it allows you to inspect a representation of your output without having to go to the trouble of printing it out. In addition, most previewers allow you to view the pages at various magnifications so you can check everything from overall page layout to the exact positioning of sub and superscripts. As far as I am concerned, having a fast, integrated previewer is the single most important feature you can add to TeX. Especially since most of us don't happen to have a LaserWriter at arms length. So when I go home at night, I can continue to work on my documents, macros, etc. preview them to be sure they're what I want, and then print them when I return to work. So let's talk about TeXtures (correct me if I forget anything). The application provides three functions. First is the multiwindow text editor. It isn't the best 'TEXT' editor around, and sometimes I'll work on modifying my documents in QuED or something, but I do most of my work inside TeXtures. Most important, turnaround time for macro writing, fine tuning and overall error correction almost vanishes. You can look at the TeX output in a previewer window while checking the source file in another window. The editor is pretty standard, offering Cut/Copy/Paste and Search, GoTo Line#, AutoIndent and WordWrap and can handle files of virtually unlimited length (NO it is NOT TextEdit). The second part of TeXtures is the actual TeX engine. When you select "Typeset" from one of the menus, a TeX log window appears, and things progress pretty much as they normally would on any other TeX system, a few bells and whistles appear on the side of the window... a line# and page# indicator, a pause button, etc. After the TeX run completes the log window stays around so you can look back at TeX's error and diagnostic messages. In terms of speed, I estimate that the TeX engine runs about as fast as it would on a moderately loaded VAX, churning out a page of DVI every twenty to thirty seconds for typical output. After the TeX run completes, a "Typeset" window appears containing the preview version of your output. You can view this output at any magnification between 0.1 and 5 (I think). I spend most of my time looking at actual size (1.0) and twice normal size. The best results are of course obtained at the magnifications where the pixel maps of the characters are available, which for text based on the plain TeX default of 10pt means actual size, double size(20pt) and LaserWriter (42pt). THIS IS CUTE. At "LaserWriter" magnification you view your document at 417% of actual size (72dpi times 4.17 = 300dpi), so that you actually get to see every last pixel that will be output by the LaserWriter. Fonts: TeXtures v0.8 which is what is currently shipping, contains all of the "plain" TeX computer modern fonts. This means CM roman, italic, bold, slanted, tty, and the complete math set, all in 10pt plus the smaller sizes for super/sub scripts (7 and 5pt I believe). Each of these fonts comes in the three previewer magnifications I mentioned above: 1.0, 2.0 and 4.17. Giving a total of about 400K worth of fonts. Unfortunately this means if you need to print something at 12 or 14pt you will get a scaled version of the 300dpi font, which is OK but noticeably "jaggy" on the LaserWriter. To solve this problem, for font monsters like myself, K&S are making the fonts available at a variety of other sizes (other fonts too, like sans-serif, etc...). It is currently not clear how these additional fonts/sizes will be made available. You also have access to the resident LaserWriter (and by now) the LaserWriter Plus fonts. If you must you can also print on your ImageWriter in either standard (better) or final (best) quality, remember the 1.0 and 2.0 magnification previewer fonts? The popular macro packages LaTeX and AMSTeX are available, and in addition you can create your own custom macro packages and keep them around in TeX's fast loading .fmt format. (Whew...) There are lots of things I have left out here, but you can ask me other questions if you need to... For now let me try and contrast the two implementations... FTL MacTeX also contains a built in text editor and previewer, BUT... FTL uses a TextEdit based editor, ARGGH! Yes, I know they are easy to write (I wrote one for an obscure Macintosh C book ages ago), but they suck rotten eggs if your files get even as large as 10K. FTL does not have screen fonts for the Computer Modern fonts, thus you can ONLY preview documents written using LaserWriter fonts. I see this as a serious drawback. Sure you could preview using Times and print using CM Roman, but they are not the same. Especially when it comes to the math fonts. Now hang on to your hats...Again FTL lets you preview your document at various magnifications, but it uses copybits to expand or contract the "actual size" image, kind of like Fat Bits. This is not a previewer. It's fine for looking at compressed images. But when you enlarge your image, you cant see anything more, subsubscripts and the like are still unreadable. FTL does however come with a complete set of "plain" TeX CM fonts for the LaserWriter, they made PostScript outlines, which are available at ALL sizes for printing. You cannot print to an ImageWriter. So in conclusion... Currently I think TeXtures is a much more complete and robust product than FTL MacTeX. Both products are however still very young and I would expect many of the problems I have outlined above to be corrected in the future. --------------------------------------------- Questions, comments, etc. should be sent to me rather than the net, unless they are of geberal interest to the net... Dave Burnard burnard@lll-lcc.ARPA ======================================================================== The usual disclaimers apply: I have no connection with Addison Wesley/Kellerman & Smith other than as a satisfied customer. I have no connection with FTL Systems whatsoever. ======================================================================= ----------