OzTex for the Macintosh: Last Updated 10/09/01

This is a just a crude set of instructions to get LaTeX to work on your Mac created for Dave Arnold's Linear Algebra class at College of the Redwoods in Eureka, CA.

Neccessary Files:

Carbon 1.4
for people who are using version of MacOS 8.6 this might help in running the programs listed below. Carbon is an API that bridges the gap between the new Unix-based MacOS X and the older versions of MacOS (9.1 down to 8.6). It allows programmers to make programs that run on both platforms. If you are running something older I cannot guarentee that these instructions will work for you and suggest you upgrade from 8.0 to 8.6 which is free or to 9. If you are running system 7.x.x I suggest you get a new computer as I cannot help you (I could help you but it would be a lot more work).

Carbon1.4:download link here

OzTex:
This one is a bit of a pain. For some reason I cannot see a full justification for he has decided to segment this download into ten seperate downloads. Just download all the files that are listed at the following location

ftp://ctan.tug.org/tex-archive/systems/mac/oztex/

and place them all in the same folder (there is a readme with similar instructions). Then unstuff them all and throw away the stuff archives (or at least move them out of the way). You should end up with something that looks like this:

BBEdit Demo:
OzTeX comes with a LaTeX aware text editor named Alpha but I prefer BBEdit (mainly because after messing with Alpha for 4 minutes I couldn't figure out how to get syntax coloring on). The BBEdit Demo will only open (the application will only launch) 24 times but that should be enough to get this project done. One note on how BBEdit works: BBEdit decides what syntax coloring scheme to use (what words to highlight and how to indent and other things related to a language) depending on the suffix of a file i.e. files with a .html or .htm are given html syntax. Your file won't gain this coloring until you save it with a .tex suffix. Also OzTeX might not be able to read it without the suffix. This is a change for some Mac users who don't always have to deal with this nonsense.

BBEdit Demo:http://ftp.barebones.com/pub/demos/BBEdit_6.1_Demo.smi.hqx

BBEdit downloads as a .smi (self-mounting image). Just drag the folder off the disk that appear on the desktop named "BBEdit 6.1 Demo" when you open that file and drag the folder named "BBEdit 6.1 Demo" onto your hard drive. I'd recommend into the same folder as you put all your OzTeX stuff. I then made an to the BBEdit program and put it next to the OzTeX program.

Optional Files:

MacGSView
This is a general purpose postscript viewer which might come in handy.

MacGSView:ftp://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/ghost/aladdin/gs600/mac/test/MacGSView_2.0b3_Installer.bin

(There is also a Mac OS X version at the site for those interested)

When You Are Done Your Folder Should Look Something Like This:

Instructions on Use:

I've circled the important applications for our use. MacGSView isn't really neccesary so ignore it if you want to.
BBEdit and OzTeX are your two primary applications. BBEdit is where you type in your work and make changes, save, etc. etc. As mentioned before, you must save your file with a .tex extension in order for the syntax coloring to work. i.e. test.tex or intro.tex. Now, OzTeX is responsible for turning that .tex file into a .dvi file (device independant) and then turning that .dvi into something you can look at.

Type your document up like shown in the instructions in BBEdit which operates like pretty much any other text editor you've dealth with.

Sidenote: When OzTeX has an error processing a TeX file you hit 'e' to go edit the file and that works fine, but it won't jump to the line that needs to be edited (it can, but setting that up is a bit more involved). Luckily you don't have to count the lines because BBEdit has line numbering. At the top of every document there is a row of buttons and the third button over is the option button. Selecting the 4th option "Show Line Numbers" will hide show the line numbers (visible in this picture to the left of the cursor in the striped column).

When you have .tex document to display it is time to use OzTeX.

Setting up OzTeX: OzTeX is initially configured to use Alpha as it's default text editor. Here is how you change that:

1. Open OzTeX
2. Goto the "Config" menu (it's the six to the right).
3. Go to the second option down entitled "Edit Local"
4. It will launch a text editor (very likely Alpha) and a page will come up. At the very top of the page is something that looks like this:

% The supplied Default files set text_editor to ALFA (for Alpha or AlphaLite)
% so if you use a different editor then enable one of these lines:
%
% text_editor = R*ch (for BBEdit)
% text_editor = "MPS " (for MPW)
%
% If you use another editor and don't know its creator code then just drop
% the application onto the Show Apps joblet supplied with Odd Jobs.

You want to delete the "%" before the line that says "% text_editor = R*ch (for BBEdit)". When you are done it should look like this:

% The supplied Default files set text_editor to ALFA (for Alpha or AlphaLite)
% so if you use a different editor then enable one of these lines:
%
text_editor = R*ch (for BBEdit)
% text_editor = "MPS " (for MPW)
%
% If you use another editor and don't know its creator code then just drop
% the application onto the Show Apps joblet supplied with Odd Jobs.

Then save the changes and quite the program and you are ready to continue.

OzTeX Use:

OzTeX isn't a very intuitive program but luckily we don't have to know what all its options do. We can get by with two commands.

Processing a Tex File:

1. Go to the "TeX" menu and goto the "TeX..." option and chose the "..." option and then navigate to the .tex file you saved on your hard drive and some text will scroll in the box to the middle. If everything goes fine it will end with "Time elapsed: " and some number. If it has an error it will spit out the error message and give you a ">" and a blinking cursor. type "e" and hit return and it will take you to your .tex document in BBEdit. Note: Notice the option right under the "Tex...", that will process the last file you selected for processing If you run OzTeX on a .tex document and then make changes to the same document and save them you can come back and just hit "Command-T" (the key immediatly to the left and right of the spacebar and the "t" key at the same time) and it will process the same file again.

Viewing the File: What OzTeX does when you select a TeX file with it is to convert that file into a .dvi file. Here is how you see what that file looks like.

1. Select the file by going to the "View" menu, going to "View DVI..." and choosing "..." and navigating to the .dvi file that is in the same folder as your .tex file was (it was created and but there when you processed the .tex file). Note: Hitting "Command-O" will automatically select the last file that was viewed or processed from a .tex file. A dialog box will ocme up with some options but just hit okay and your document will appear. There are ways to turn this into a pdf or other more compatible formats but that isn't really necessary at the moment.

Well I hope this helps anyone trying to use LaTeX on the Mac. I did all this under MacOS X (10.0.4) but it should work on MacOS 9.1 (and on lower versions if Carbon is installed). To people using less than 9.1 you should really think about upgrading for compatibility with new software and such.