[tex-live] file and viewer commands on OS/2 and macos (was: texdoc.tlu)

[Reinhard Kotucha]

Frank Küster writes:
 > Frank Küster <frank at kuesterei.ch> wrote:
 > 
 > >>      if (os.type == "windows") then ....
 > >
 > > It is done like this already, except that I didn't know of os.type (or
 > > maybe it wasn't available one year ago), 
 > 
 > I've now read about os.type, and have a view questions:
 > 
 > - is it possible to distinguish OS/2, and if not what will it return?
 >   msdos?

Hi Frank,
os.type() returns either "unix", "windows", or "msdos".

I suppose that on OS/2 it returns "msdos".

OS/2 is collaborative work of IBM and Microsoft.  Microsoft gave it up
when Bill Gates came to the conclusion that a multi-tasking OS is only
good for mainframes, not for personal computers.  But AFAIK the most
commands work on both systems.

 > - What would be useful commands for removing a file or directory on
 >   OS/2?

I don't know why you are so much concerned about OS2 and MSDOG.
None of these systems is maintained anymore for centuries.  There are
no actively maintained TeX distributions for these platforms any more.  

Stupid question: Do the old, unmaintaned TeX distributions for OS/2
and MSDOG provide a texlua engine???  This is essential if you want
to support these systems.  My opinion:  Forget them.

 > - What would be useful commands for viewers on MacOSX? Ideally something
 >   which reflects the settings of the user, e.g. whether (s)he wants
 >   Preview or Adobe Reader for PDF files?

I suppose that Preview is part of OSX and should be used by default on
OSX.  However, it should be possible to switch to AR somehow.

All the non-Adobe PDF engines only support a subset of the PDF
standard.  A user should always be able to make AR the default
browser.

Regards,
  Reinhard

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Reinhard Kotucha			              Phone: +49-511-3373112
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