latex implementation on mac

[brianj]

Hello

Im an experienced LaTeX user and I know how to get my own packages etc. I dont want a frontend or anything. I just want to be able to get pdflatex, ps2latex etc. with the normally used packages.

Ive seen previous posts about latex on mac but they were referred to implementations with frontends and every single package on CTAN...

 

[MisterMe]

... I just want to be able to get pdflatex, ps2latex etc. with the normally used packages.

If you install teTeX, the LaTeX backend, then you have the packages that you want.

Ive seen previous posts about latex on mac but they were referred to implementations with frontends and every single package on CTAN...

If you follow the links in the LaTeXiT thread below, then you will find the MacTeX.dmg disk image file which contains everything that you want.

 

[brianj]

Hello MisterMe,

Thanks for your reply.

I was under the impression that the link to the dmg in the latexit dvd was bloated. Can I deselect all the things but the implementation itself + minimal packages?


Best regards
Brian

 

[MisterMe]

...

I was under the impression that the link to the dmg in the latexit dvd was bloated. Can I deselect all the things but the implementation itself + minimal packages?

...

What is this fixation with deleting things before you try them? Everything in the MacTeX package is useful to LaTeX users. Give them a tryout. If at some later time you find that this is not the case for you, then you may delete them then.

 

[y0zza]

The TeXLive distribution that's included in MacTeX is indeed a bit bloated. There are many packages that are rarely used.

Still, it's a very comprehensive distribution that installs with minimal hassle, so I typically recommend MacTeX to newbie TeX/LaTeX users.

If you want something more fine-grained, try gwTeX which is based on a subset of the latest TeXLive (from SVN).

It's actually possible to use both anyway, and there's a prefpane that allows you to switch the relevant symlinks automatically. I do this, since sometimes I need a load of obscure packages (and can't be bothered to put them in my user-level texmf tree), but at other times I just use gwTeX because it's based on a more recent snapshot of TeXLive with the newer associated packages (e.g., beamer, koma-script, etc).