“Not for the faint of heart.” [beta available now!]
Welcome to native Textures for OS X 10.4 (Tiger). This is a Universal binary, for both the PowerPC and Intel Macintosh platforms.
Textures 2.2.0a9 is the final alpha release; when we first made Textures 2.2.0a available, we wanted it clearly understood that it was experimental software which could not be expected to be reliable, stable, or predictable. We were perhaps excessively cautious; Textures 2.2.0a has proven to be stable and reliable (and fast!) Therefore, we will shortly be advancing to beta stage, meaning that our new Textures can be expected to be functional and dependable in regular use. We wish to be clear, however, that Textures remains (very!) far from feature-complete: the first beta release will be very similar to this a9 release, the user interface remains woefully incomplete, and the beta stage will be an extended period of constant development. A prudent level of caution with each new release is advised.
2.2.0a9 (26Jan07) news: basic virtual (VF) font support
Textures 2.2.0a9 includes a great deal of underwater (invisible) development, most of it related to fonts and character encodings, the sort of things that should “just work”. The visible part is basic support for virtual (VF) fonts, so that most LaTeX fonts and most Classic Textures metrics will now be usable with native Textures. (VF fonts are -not- finished; there are several subtle issues yet to be completed, at which point we will advance to beta stage.)
2.2.0a8 (06August06) news: document coherence
With Textures 2.2.0a8, document windows begin to “hold together” — closing the edit window closes the document, it's no longer possible to open multiple copies of the same document, etc., and it's possible to change the typeset view size. All this is still very rough, but taking shape.
Note: this update corrects a serious bug when saving documents, and is therefore strongly recommended!
2.2.0a7 (31July06) news: external editors (!)
Textures 2.2.0a7 includes support for external editor activation: if an open document is modified and saved by another editor, and Flash Mode is enabled, the document will be automatically typeset.
We have tested this with several editors, including TextWrangler, BBEdit, and TeXshop. TextWrangler is freely available from Bare Bones Software.
We would appreciate notices of user experiences with other editors; the activation method is quite general and of negligible overhead, but again must be regarded as experimental software. In particular, please note that it is possible for Textures and external editors to have simultaneous unsaved changes to a given document, which can easily result in loss of data; at the present time, Textures has only a primitive safety interlock, and will not save to documents which have been externally modified unless the user confirms the operation. Again, we recommend working with only a single document within Textures for best reliability.
We wish to express our gratitude to Miles Reid of the University of Warwick for his assistance with this facility.
(Textures 2.2.0a5 added new facilities; 2.2.0a6 corrects a crash present since 2.2.0a1, 2.2.0a7 corrects another crash, enhances stability, and allows printing of selected pages.)
Please note: although VF (virtual) font metrics are accepted by Textures 2.2.0a, drawing of VF characters is not yet supported; any VF characters will be invisible.
2.2.0a4 (12July06) news: graphics, caching
The 2.2.0a4 version includes support for EPSF, PICT, and PDF graphics, with syntax compatible with Classic Textures:
\special{illustration <filename> [scaled <xscale> [<yscale>]]}
Note that EPSF screen graphics are drawn from the PostScript code at full resolution, unlike Classic Textures. There is at present no facility to draw pages other than the first from EPSF or PDF files.
Also supported are Classic Textures' pictures in existing Classic Textures documents:
\special{picture <name> [scaled <xscale> [<yscale>]]}
Textures 2.2.0a4 includes significant file and directory caching, improving performance for LaTeX documents especially. Note that these new facilities may be fragile: we recommend working with only one document at a time, and suggest that you be prepared to save your work and restart Textures if the system should become unstable.
Note with regard to LaTeX and VF fonts: some common LaTeX packages call on some of the AMS fonts which are virtual (VF) fonts. VF fonts are not yet supported by Textures 2.2.0a, and although VF font support is at the top of our priority list, we cannot yet estimate when it will be available.
Installation.
Drag the Textures application to your Applications folder.
If you have a current Textures 2.1 installation (PowerPC/Classic): this native Textures will use the same fonts and activation keys. We suggest placing an alias to your current TeX Fonts folder into the (user)/Library/Application Support/Textures/Metrics folder, and a similar alias to your current TeX Inputs folder into the (user)/Library/Application Support/Textures/Inputs folder. This will allow Textures 2.2.0a to find your current metrics and macros. (The Inputs and Metrics folders will be automatically created when Textures is first launched.)
Please note that these folder names may be localized, e.g., /Library/Fonts in France may become /Bibliotheque/Polices.
If you do not have a current Textures 2.1 installation: (this will be true for all Intel Macintosh systems) drag the Computer Modern folder into your /Library/Fonts folder. It will be necessary to enter your Textures 2.1 serial number and activation key; it will also be necessary to have an Internet connection to request an installation key from the bluesky.com server.
Note that the 2.2.0a disk image (DMG) does not include the usual TeX input files, e.g., the LaTeX packages, macros, styles, classes, etc. are not included. You can download the Classic Textures folder of these files here:
Unpack this archive, and place its contents in the (user)/Library/Application Support/Textures/Inputs folder.
Functions.
Textures 2.2.0a can edit, typeset, view, and print TeX documents; Plain and LaTeX formats are included. (The VirTeX format is provided for those intrepid explorers who wish to \dump new formats.)
The view magnifier is present; use the page up/down keys to select the view page.
Limitations.
There are \special commands only for illustrations and pictures, none for color, PostScript, HTML, etc. extensions. VF (virtual) fonts are not fully supported. There is only the bare minimum of editor function, no Synchronicity, no document context.
It is possible that Textures 2.2.0a will crash without warning; please save your work often. Note that Textures 2.2.0a will not warn you to save changes when you close windows or quit.
The Immediate Future.
Textures 2.2.0a will be updated frequently; please check this page. (At some point we expect to enable automatic update checks.)
Our priority is to add functionality to extend compatibility with existing Textures documents and broaden the range of documents which can be processed; our immediate goal is to add support for VF (virtual) fonts.
We will pay attention to email as to which function and interface improvements will be most useful in your work; please send suggestions to suggest@bluesky.com, and crash logs to crash@bluesky.com. Please include an identifiable subject email header so that our spam filters will be pacified. Alas, it will not be possible for us to respond directly.
Thank you.
We wish to express our profound gratitude and appreciation for your patience, and for the many expressions of support and encouragement we have received in the years of work on this project.