| What's new in this version: TeXShop 4.35
- Change log not available for this version
TeXShop 4.27
- When using the Apple Find Bar, command-G now searches for the next item immediately; it isn't necessary to activate the edit portion of the window before using this shortcut
- Nicola Vitacolonna provided new LilyPond engines and documentation
- The documentation on the Sage engine has been improved
- Latexmk was updated from version 4.61 to version 4.63
TeXShop 4.26
- There are two ways to activate sync from source to preview and preview to source; either click on a spot while holding down the command key, or bring up a contextual menu from a spot and select the first item, "sync". The second method lost accuracy sometime in the Mojave era. This is fixed and now the two methods are equivalent
- The information on using TeX and Sage together in ~/Library/TeXShop/Engines/Inactive/Sage has been improved, and the example typesets correctly with the latest Sage
TeXShop 4.25
- TeXShop 4.25 fixes an important memory leak. It fixes Applescript support, which broke a couple of months ago. And it continues the story of synchronizing with external editors started by TeXShop 4.24. Only people who configure TeXShop for an external editor will be interested in that third feature. But first, the memory leak, and applescript support
TeXShop 4.24
-Fixed: Seiji Zenitani reported that In localized versions of TeXShop, the Tags and Index pulldown menus first appear in English and then switch to the correct language when initialized. This is particularly annoying in Japanese because English stands out like a sore thumb
- Jesús Soto uses TeXShop with an external editor, TextMate, and requested that SyncTeX in TeXShop be given the ability to sync from the Preview window to the corresponding source in TextMate. I absolutely, positively, refused to honor this request. But I couldn't help thinking about it. In the end I relented
- TextMate installs a command line program in /usr/local/bin which is able to control some of the features of the editor. For instance, the command: /usr/local/bin/mate --line 50 /Users/koch/Syllabus.tex
- opens Syllabus.tex in TextMate (if not already open) and highlights line number 50. This makes it easy to support syncTeX from TeXShop to TextMate because the standard TeXShop routine to implement syncTeX can still be used until the last moment when a line in the Source Window would be highlighted; this final step can be replaced by a call to "mate"
- Therefore TeXShop 4.24 can sync from the Preview window to TextMate in the standard way: click on a spot in the pdf display while holding down the command key. As a bonus, Goto Error works from the Console window if the user is using TeXShop to typeset. Click this button to be taken to the first error, and click again and again to cycle through the first few errors. Of course TeXShop must be in "external editor" mode to use these features; It is also necessary to activate the features with a hidden preference: defaults write TeXShop TextMateSync YES
- TextMate is one of many editors for the Macintosh. The ultimate goal is to add the same support for most other editors. TeXShop Preferences would have a drop-down menu listing editors it understands. The user could select their editor in this menu and automatically "sync from pdf to editor" and "Goto Error".
- Unfortunately, I don't have time or money to accumulate editors and determine how each can be controlled. But users can gather this information for me. TeXShop 4.24 already supports other editors provided their users can write simple shell scripts, as will be explained shortly. If a user adds this support, they should send information back to me on how it was done, so I can make it easier for future users of their editor to gain the feature
- If you use a different external editor and want to implement the feature, you must first turn it on using a hidden preference: defaults write TeXShop OtherEditorSync YES
- This default deactivates the TextMateSync preference mentioned earlier. Instead whenever TeXShop wants to "sync from pdf to editor" or "Goto Error", it calls a shell script in /usr/local/bin named "othereditor". When it calls this script, it sends two parameters to the call: $1 contains the line number (as a string), and $2 contains a full path to the desired tex source file. The othereditor script then calls the external editor using its version of the "mate" program
- But there is no "othereditor" script in /usr/local/bin. The user needs to create this script. The script must be named "othereditor" with no extension, and have its execute bit turned on. The script should call whatever binary is used by the desired editor to open the file $2 if it is not already open, and jump to line $1
For example here is the complete "othereditor" script file for TextMate:
#!/bin/tcsh
set path= ($path /Library/TeX/texbin /usr/texbin /usr/local/bin)
/usr/local/bin/mate --line $1 $2
TeXShop 4.23
- TeXShop provides default light and dark themes in ~/Library/TeXShop/Themes, named LiteTheme.plist and DarkTheme.plist. These are available in case the user activates other themes and then accidentally removes them. If LiteTheme.plist or DarkTheme.plist is removed from the directory, TeXShop will recreate it. However, previous versions of TeXShop failed to recreate DarkTheme. That is because the code to recreate LiteTheme was copied and pasted to recreate DarkTheme, but variables inside this code were not changed. This bug is fixed. It is unlikely that many users ran into it
- Several users, however, ran into a second bug. When they started TeXShop, the Preview Window and the Console Window did not update their colors. In dark mode, the font color and background color of the console were equal, so the contents were invisible. Opening TeXShop Preferences and editing these colors fixed the problem, but this had to be done every time TeXShop started
- This problem only affected users who configured TeXShop to use an external editor. The problem is now fixed
- Most theme colors are for the editor, so the initialization code which set these colors was placed in the section of TeXShop initializing the editor, and thus never ran in external editor mode. The fix involved moving this color initialization code five lines down in the code base, so it covered all documents
- Kurt Roth pointed out that version 4.22 broke "makeIndex" and provided a useful source file which clearly showed this binary working in version 4.21 and failing in 4.22. This problem is fixed. The source file made it easy to isolate the problem. Thanks, Kurt
- There were two main changes in 4.22 which could affect makeIndex. The first was that I switched from the old NSTask API's, now deprecated, to the new API's. Roth's source code revealed that this switch was not the cause of his problem
- The second change was that I switched from the "notification" method of telling TeXShop that an external task ended to the "termination Handler" method. This handler failed with makeIndex, announcing a termination before the task was finished. The fix involved switching back to the old method when makeIndex is run
- It is possible that the terminationHandler is misbehaving for other TeX tasks, so that instead of fixing the NSTask problem discussed at length in the 4.22 changes, it made the problem worse. Consequently, in TeXShop 4.23 we use the new NSTask API's on High Sierra and Mojave (where they are available), but revert on all operating systems to the old notification method of telling TeXShop that an external task ended
- This fix bypasses the fix for NSTask problems implemented in TeXShop 4.22 and described in detail in the associated Changes document. Therefore if latex seems to have failed due to the bug, TeXShop will not call "Trash AUX Files" and will not try to typeset a second time. Moreover, it will not display log information in the console
However, hidden preference items are available to turn this behavior back on, and activate the terminationHandler, for users who'd like to help debug the NSTask problem. To turn on the terminationHandler, which is off by default:
- defaults write TeXShop UseTerminationHandler YES
Turning this on will also turn on the NSTask bug fix by default. To turn it off:
- defaults write TeXShop DoNotFixTeXCrash YES
Logging information will be off by default. To turn it on:
- defaults write TeXShop DisplayLogInfo YES
Note: A very small number of users got an experimental version of TeXShop 4.23 before its official release. For those users, the default value of UseTerminationHandler was YES rather than the current NO. These users should run:
- defaults write TeXShop UseTerminationHandler NO
TeXShop 4.22
- Footnote syntax coloring is now triggered by footnote, autocite, footcite, and cite. In each of these commands, optional parameters [...] are ignored but do not turn off coloring the required {...}
- A small number of users have reported a bug while typesetting large documents (700 pages and larger). The bug occurs randomly. Typesetting will suddenly stop in the middle, without an error message, and input to the console will end, but the rest of TeXShop will remain active. Recovery is easy; just typeset again. Since the aux file was not properly closed, it is usually necessary to "Trash Aux Files" before typesetting
- TeXShop 4.22 has a workaround for this bug. Because it adopted a new Apple API for NSTask, and implemented a "terminationHandler" provided by that API, it can identify typesetting jobs which ended because of the bug. It then automatically calls "Trash Aux Files" and typesets again. This happens so rapidly that users may not notice the double typesetting job
There is a possibility that this "fix" will have unintended consequences, although several users have tested it for a week. So there is a hidden preference to turn it off:
- defaults write TeXShop DoNotFixTeXCrash YES
TeXShop can output log information about NSTask and the typesetting bug. This is off by default, but can be turned on with a hidden preference:
- defaults write TeXShop DisplayLogInfo YES
TeXShop 4.21
- In version 4.21, a footnote is colored starting with the initial "{"until the matching occurrence of "}" is found. In version 4.20, coloring ended with the first "}", but this brace did not form a matching pair with the starting brace if other "{, }" pairs were in the comment
- In 4.21, the "Color Index" tool colors index items using the "index color". In 4.20 by mistake, the "footnote color" was used. TeXShop 4.21 only colors the material in the index parameter; when first introduced several versions ago, the "Color Index" tool also colored the word "index" and associated braces
TeXShop 4.20
- The menu item "Close Current Environment" added an extraneous "92" to the text it inserted in the source. This was caused by a warning issued by the compiler and its suggested fix, which I accepted too readily, The "92" is now gone.
- TeXShop has a special color for footnote text. This color can be turned off by a hidden preference, but it was always off in version 4.19. The bug is fixed. The footnote color is also used for index text if the "Color Index" tool is added to the toolbar and checked. This broke and is now fixed.
- In the Italian localization, single window mode showed a blank left side. This is fixed.
TeXShop 4.19
- In some situations, the initial bracket or brace of a command parameter was not syntax colored. The bug was hard to see in Lite mode, but stood out like a sore thumb in Dark mode. The bug is fixed. Many users may not have noticed this bug because it only occurred when the second of the three new "Spell Checking" options in TeXShop Preferences was on
- John Farragut pointed out that the console transparency was set to the source transparency rather than to its own value as set in Themes. This is fixed
- Before version 4.18, the tags menu was entirely reconstructed after each new text entry. This was wasteful of computer resources and risked making the editor sluggish. In 4.18, this code was deactivated and instead the tags menu is constructed just before it is displayed
- Tag entries can be displayed in three different menus. If the toolbar is in "Icon Mode" or "Icon + Text" mode, the icon itself is a drop-down menu which displays the tags. If the toolbar is in "Text Only" mode, the "Tags text" is a drop-down menu which displays the tags. Finally, there us a TeXShop Preference setting which adds a Tags menu to the menu bar, and this menu also displays the tags. Clicking on the Tags Icon updates all three menus
- However, there was a bug in 4.18, so that clicking on the "text only" tool or on the Tag menu in the menu bar did not update any menus. This caused problems for users whose toolbars are in "Text Only" mode, since nothing they clicked updated the menus. Consequently, all tag menus remained empty. This problem also affected the new Labels item. Most users set the toolbar to "Icon" or "Icon + Text" modes, and did not run into this problem. I got only one bug report
- Unfortunately, this problem does not have an easy solution. The code in version 4.18 depended on a feature of PopUp menus in Cocoa; they can send a notification when first clicked, before displaying their popup menu, giving time for the menu to be constructed on the fly. Ordinary menus and menus attached to "Text Only" mode do not come with this Cocoa feature. I spent several days trying to find a work-around, before deciding that any work around would not be in the spirit of Cocoa and could easily break in the future. Returning to the old method of updating the Tag menu would fix the problem. But this would risk a sluggish editor, and benefit only 10% of users who set the toolbar to text only mode
- Consequently, version 4.19 introduces another tool for these special users affected by the problem. The name of the tool is "Update" because clicking it updates all tag and labels menus to the current state of the text. Users who adopt text-only toolbars should add the Update tool to their Source toolbar. If they sometimes use "single window mode", they should also add the Update tool to that toolbar. Then use Tags and Labels as usual, even after editing text. But if you begin to notice that Tags or Labels doesn't take you to exactly the correct line, hit Update before continuing. Incidentally, when syntax coloring is on, the Tags and Labels menus are updated once when a document is first opened
TeXShop 4.18
- There is a new tool in the Source and Combined Windows toolbars called "Labels". It behaves like the existing Tags tool except that it lists all labels in the source code. Selecting an item in the resulting pull down menu takes the user to the definition of that particular label
- The Tags menu now also tags lines beginning with the following commands, for users of Beamer and Powerdot
- When a TeXShop engine job runs, it will find that TeXShop has set a new environmental variable for it called TS_CHAR. This variable holds the current selection location in the source file. Some engine authors may find this useful
- Michael Beeson sent a crash report for TeXShop when using the "search" method of synchronization, a very old method mostly superseded by Lauren's SyncTeX. The crash is fixed in 4.18
- The most controversial Sims' addition, and the most useful for some, concerns to spell checking in TeXShop. When spell checking is on, many LaTeX commands are marked as misspelled. This is annoying. One common solution is to install a LaTeX-aware spell checker like cocoAspell. Thanks to Sims, TeXShop can now handle this problem --- for some users --- while using the standard Apple spell checker and standard Apple dictionaries
- Apple provides three ways to spell check text in Cocoa, and TeXShop inherits these three methods. The methods are activated for the current file in TeXShop's Edit menu, and default values can be set in TeXShop Preferences
- The first of these items is titled "Check Spelling", and has a keyboard shortcut "command + semicolon". When this combination is pressed, the first misspelled word is highlighted. Each additional press causes TeXShop to jump to the next misspelled word and highlight it. This spell check command is thus a glorified search in which only misspelled words are found
- A second way to spell check is to activate the menu item "Correct Spelling Automatically." This converts your computer into a giant iPhone, constantly standing behind you and changing what you type into what it thinks you ought to have typed. This feature can be turned off in system preferences, but users had a hard time discovering how to do it. So I added this item to TeXShop, not because I wanted users to use it, but because I wanted users to easily turn it off
- The final way to spell check is to use the menu item "Check Spelling While Typing." This item underlines misspelled words as they are typed, and the user can then go back and correct these words. This is how I spell check in TeXShop. The new spelling code works well with this style of spell checking. The new code doesn't work with the other methods, but it does no harm there
- In TeXShop Preferences, there is a new box of selections labeled "Spell Checking". These items are off by default. Leave them off if you use cocoAspell or any spell checking method except "Check Spelling While Typing."
- The first spell checking item turns off spell checking for all TeX command words: documentclass, usepackage, begin, alpha and the like. The second is explained in the next paragraph and the third turns off spell checking inside comments. Some users may write little essays as source comments and prefer to leave spell checking on for them
- Many TeX commands have optional parameters [...] and mandatory parameters {...}. The entries inside these parameters can also be specialized TeX words. That is true of the first example below, and it is annoying if the spell checker marks "parfill" and "parskip" as misspelled. On the other hand, in the second example the parameter is a user-supplied string which ought to be spell checked
- The second item in the "Spell Checking" box of TeXShop Preferences turns on a somewhat crude method of handling both kinds of parameters. When this item is on, most TeX command parameters are spell checked. But TeXShop has an internal list of certain TeX commands whose parameters contain specialized words, and for these it turns off spell checking for the first two parameters (if they occur in the source). This internal list, incidentally, is exactly the list marked for special handling by cocoAspell. But cocoAspell is more intelligent, and can mark which parameters to spell check and which to skip
- There is a hidden preference setting to extend the list of specialized TeX commands. The first command below adds one more element to the existing array of user supplied exceptions. The second command erases the array so the user can start over. Note that neither command affects TeXShop's default list of special commands
- What is the mechanism used to turn off spell checking? I wish I had thought of Sims' idea. The text in the TeXShop source window is an "attributed string." This means it is an ordinary (often very long) string, with an additional data structure associated with the string that lists attributes like "text color" and "background color" for selected ranges of the string. Sims noticed that one of the available attributes is "do not spell check this selection." So Sims added lines to TeXShop's syntax coloring code which prevent the Mac from spell checking TeX commands or comments. This means in particular that the feature only works if syntax coloring is turned on
- Note that cocoAspell uses more sophisticated methods and operates at the optimal moment when the system is actually checking spelling, rather than at an earlier syntax coloring moment. So if you use cocoAspell, you will want to turn all the "Spell Checking" preferences off
- Because TeXShop doesn't act at the "spell checking moment", there are some minor glitches with our method. When a document is first opened, there can be a slight delay and then all TeX commands will be marked as misspelled. But a single click in the edit window will fix this problem. Similarly, while source is being typed, some commands may be marked as misspelled, but the mark will be removed when RETURN is pressed
- Unfortunately, the new attribute is totally ignored by the "Check Spelling" search item, so it will not help when you go through the manuscript word by word looking for misspellings
TeXShop 4.17
- Version 4.16 had an updated OgreKit Find Panel. Unfortunately, we only briefly tested this panel, and it caused several problems when 4.16 was released
- The new panel did not support Yosemite, making TeXShop crash on Yosemite. The new panel refused to run on isolated machines running Sierra, although it worked on most machines. The panel had other minor bugs which were reproducible but with easy workarounds
- Then a serious, reproducible, and dangerous bug was discovered. If the "Find All" button was pressed in OgreKit, it worked as expected, but afterward the editor appeared to accept no new edits. Although the user could type, no new material appeared in the source. But if the source window was closed and then reopened, these edits suddenly appeared. Thus a user could close a document in one state, and open it in a different state. This is not acceptable
- Version 4.17 reverts to the old OgreKit. This has minor font size problems and problems in Dark Mode, but no serious bugs
- Version 4.17 has only one other change. In earlier versions of TeXShop, synctex from source to preview colored rather large sections of preview text. If a user in Dark Mode selected orange rather than yellow, a small section of orange appeared in a larger yellow selection. Now synctex colors a smaller section for greater accuracy, and with only one color
TeXShop 4.16
- The Ogrekit Find Panel has been modified by the author, Isao Sonobe, to use the latest Apple technologies . These changes include slight fixes to fully support Dark Mode. The changes are greatly appreciated
- The Korean localization has been brought up to date by Kangsu Kim. Many thanks
- The Matrix Panel has been improved slightly to support Dark Mode, although the table deliberately has a white background in both modes
- Following a request of Kasper Steensgaard, syntax coloring for footnote, footcite, and autocite is modified to also color the inserted text. For example, the entire source phrase "footnote{This is well known}" is syntax colored. Steensgaard works in the field of law where footnotes are common, and this change makes editing them easier
- The color of these footnotes is initially the same as the color of other LaTeX commands, but this color is now editable in the Themes panel of TeXShop Preferences
- I have learned that some users object to even slight editor changes, so there is a hidden preference to turn this feature off: defaults write TeXShop SyntaxColorFootnote NO
- The latest version of the Sparkle update code, adopted in TeXShop 4.14, supports delta updates. These updates load much faster because they only contain code that has changed since a previous version. The update to 4.16 will contain delta updates 4.14 --> 4.16 and 4.15 --> 4.16. Thus if you update from a version of TeXShop earlier than 4.14, you will download the complete program rather than the delta update
- Future updates will contain a delta update from the previous version only, so this is an incentive to keep the program up to date
TeXShop 4.15
- In TeXShop 4.14, a file named TeXShop,scriptSuite and a program named ScriptRunner were inadvertently omitted from the TeXShop Application Bundle. This broke several Applescript macros. The missing files are again present in TeXShop 4.15
TeXShop 4.14
- In macOS Lion, Apple added a "bounce" when the text in Text Edit scrolled to the top or bottom of the screen. Some users found this bounce excessive, and we added two hidden Preference Items to control it. The first, "defaults write TeXShop SourceScrollElasticity NO" was supposed to turn this bounce off, but in succeeding versions of macOS had less and less effect. The bounce also caused line number scrolling to break near the top and bottom of the text, and we added an extra fix for this problem: "defaults write TeXShop FixLineNumberScroll YES". But future versions of macOS fixed this "Line Number Scroll Bug", so our fix wasn't necessary and instead caused harm by dramatically increasing the bounce effect
- In version 4.14 we have given up on bounces and disabled both of these hidden preference items. The result is a mild bounce similar to the behavior of scrolling in other text programs. For many of us, the change improves the behavior of scrolling near the top and bottom of the source in TeXShop
- In Dark Mode on Mojave, many symbols in the LaTeX Panel were barely visible. This is fixed
- The Sparkle Update Framework in TeXShop has been updated to the latest version. Sparkle updates are protected by a public key encryption system. Until this update, that public key was DSA, but Sparkle has switched to EdDSA, a system based on elliptic curves. This version of TeXShop contains both public keys so updates from older versions of TeXShop still work. Once you have TeXShop 4.14, further Sparkle updates will use the EdDSA key. For some time to come, TeXShop will contain both keys to protect users who are slow to update
- Latexmk has been updated to version 4.61
- The German translation of buttons in the log window is fixed
- The Sage engine documentation in TeXShop/Engines/Inactive has been updated for the current version of Sage
- For a number of years, TeXShop has been signed using my Apple Developer ID. This protects users who download the program from the internet and have the default Apple security system enabled. The first time they run TeXShop, a dialog appears saying "TeXShop is an app downloaded from the internet. Are you sure you want to open it?" If we didn't sign the program, this dialog would instead report that it was from an unknown developer and should be thrown into the trash
- Starting next year, Apple will require two additional steps from developers. First, they will require that programs be compiled with a "Hardened Runtime." This is a system in which programs indicate that they intend to use facilities which could compromise security: camera, location services, address book, photo library, execution of JIT-compiled code, etc. Version 4.14 was compiled with the hardened runtime turned on, but did not have to turn on any of these exceptions. Note that a Hardened Runtime is NOT a sandboxed application. Sandboxing, which is required for applications in the App Store, could seriously affect TeXShop's interaction with the command line programs in TeX Live, so I have never even investigated sandboxing the program or adding it to the store
- The second additional step is to send the program to Apple before signing so they can "machine check" it for viruses and other security flaws. At the 2018 Developer Conference, Apple strongly emphasized that this was not a code review or interface validation, but just an additional check for security problems. The check takes from five to ten minutes and requires a hardened runtime in advance
- The two steps are optional this year, but become mandatory next year. TeXShop 4.14 passed both steps. According to the Developer Conference, there is a way for users to detect this: in the dialog that appears when TeXShop is first opened, the TeXShop icon should appear rather than just a generic icon
TeXShop 4.13
- The Apple Color Picker has many ways to select a color: by mousing in a color wheel, by using RMK and CMYK sliders, by selecting crayons, and by directly entering color values in a box. This final method caused the Picker to close in 4.** versions of TeXShop. This is fixed
- In TeXShop Preferences under the Editor tab, in the second column, there is an item called "Flash Back for Isolated Parens". When selected, this item causes TeXShop to flash a slightly pink background color on the screen when a bracket or parenthesis with no matching symbol is typed, and then return to the original background color. On Mojave, the screen always returned to a white background, even in dark mode. Moreover, there was no way to change the "pink" color in the Themes editor. This is fixed. Now the command works in both Lite and Dark modes, and the "Flash" color for the Editor can be changed in the Themes tab
- Applescript macros in TeXShop can run in two ways. If the macro begins with the phrase "-- applescript", a separate small program, ScriptRunner, embedded in TeXShop runs the macro. If the macro begins with the phrase "-- applescript direct", TeXShop itself runs the macro. Herbert Schulz pointed out that ScriptRunner code has not been modified in several years and still contains both 32 bit and 64 bit code. This is fixed
- Version 4.08 introduced a new preference "Remaining Lines Paragraph Indent" under the Editing tab. By default, this value was set to 30, which caused TeXShop to format paragraphs of source code by indenting all lines after the first line. I received more mail about this than any other change in the 4.** series, and I learned an important lesson: "When a new feature is introduced which will change the appearance of the source code, the default value should make no change!" In version 4.13, the default value of this item is 0. Users who installed earlier versions and have been living with an 'undesirable feature' will need to change the default manually
TeXShop 4.12
- Many TeXShop macros stopped worked on Mojave. These macros use AppleTalk and AppleEvents to communicate with other programs. Apple has sandboxed AppleEvents in Mojave for security reasons. Now before such interaction is allowed, a dialog appears explaining what is about to happen, and giving the user the opportunity to allow or forbid the interaction. This dialog contains the line "TeXShop uses Apple Events to process AppleTalk scripts in the Macro Editor". This line is defined in a new element in the Info.plist file, which was absent in earlier versions of TeXShop, is present in version 4.12, and is required before sandboxed AppleEvents can be sent
- Two users have pointed out that the preference item "Flash Back for Isolated Parens", in the second column under the Editor tab of TeXShop Preferences, breaks Dark Mode. Users of Dark Mode should turn this item off
TeXShop 4.10
- When a blank new document was opened in 4.08 and 4.09, the text was colored black regardless of the chosen Theme. This is fixed
- Previously, {, }, and $ were syntax colored, but [, ] were not. Now all of these symbols receive the same syntax coloring
- TeXShop gives a Command Color to symbols beginning with / and continuing with 'a' - 'z' or 'A' - 'Z'. These are the typical commands used by Latex authors
TeXShop 4.09
- This version fixes a bug in the Theme Preference code of TeXShop 4.08. Apple's color picker has several modes, including options to choose colors using CMYK values or gray scale sliders. In version 4.08, TeXShop obtained colors from color wells, and asked these colors for their RGB values without first converting colors in other color spaces to RGB
TeXShop 4.08
- When previous versions of TeXShop ran on Mojave, several tools in the Source and Preview toolbars were missing. These items could be restored using several tricks, including opening the "Customize Toolbar" dialog. But they would again be missing the next time TeXShop ran
- This bug is fixed in version 4.08. But users who ran an earlier TeXShop on Mojave will have to take one of two actions to restore their tools. The safest is to open a project which has both a source window and a preview window, With the source window active, select the Windows menu item "Customize Toolbar..." and drag the custom set of tools to the toolbar. Repeat this operation with the preview window active. Then with the source window active, select the Windows menu item "Use One Window." Both source and preview will appear in a single window. With this window active, select the Windows menu "Customize Toolbar..." and drag the custom tools to the single-window toolbar
- Another more drastic way to fix the problem is to make sure TeXShop is not running and throw away ~/Library/Preferences/TeXShop.plist. Then run TeXShop. Tools will reappear. Reset any preference item you may have changed
- When line numbers were showing on the Source Window in Mojave, the source could scroll by about half an inch in the horizontal direction. Scrolling to the left made the beginnings of line vanish under the line numbers column. Scrolling to the right made half an inch of the source vanish off the right side. This turned out to be a Mojave bug, which Apple fixed in the fifth developer beta
- Programs must be recompiled on Mojave before they support Dark Mode on that system. When TeXShop was recompiled, the magnifying glass broke, the fix for a "flash after typesetting" broke, and two other features broke. All depended on drawing into an invisible overlay view above the Preview Window. This drawing code has been revised to work on Mojave, and the revised code also works on earlier systems
- On Mojave, the "General" preference pane for Apple's System Preferences has the ability to switch between "Light" and "Dark" appearances of the interface. In Dark mode, the toolbars of windows have a dark background, Preference and Print panels have a dark background, and so forth. But Dark Mode does not change the content regions of program displays. So in initial Mojave betas, the TeXShop editor still had black text on a white background, and the TeXShop Preview window still had the standard appearance of typeset output
- Some Apple programs on Mojave change these content regions in Dark Mode and others do not. For instance, Apple's TextEdit shows black text on a white background, but the editor in XCode switches to white text on a dark background. Apple's Preview program continues to show pdf files with their standard appearance, including black text on a white background. This is not surprising since the alternative would be to reach into the pdf file and switch colors on the fly, a more or less hopeless task
- So the question is, what should TeXShop do in Dark Mode? Note that TeXShop has had the ability for many years to change text color and background color in the Editor, the Console, and the Log file. TeX pdf output contains black text on a transparent background, so the underlying paper color shines through when printed. Thus the color of the Preview window can be changed by changing the background color of that window, an ability that has been in TeXShop for some time
- In this version of TeXShop, we allow users to design their own "Dark Mode" for content regions. By default, the editor switches to white text on a black background in Dark Mode, and the Preview window receives a darker glow in that mode. But users can decide to keep the original black on white appearance of these content regions, or design their own color theme
- To make this work, the Preference Panel's color choices have been completely rewritten. There is now a tab called "Themes" devoted to coloring various components of the program. All of the color commands have been moved to this tab. These new color commands work on all systems supported by the program, not just on Mojave. In previous versions of TeXShop, many colors could only be changed using various obscure hidden Preference settings. Now all color choices are available in the Themes tab
- The Themes portion of Preferences is shown above. On the right are all colors currently set by TeXShop. Some items have an obvious meaning and others are obscure. A full set of such choices is called a "Theme". TeXShop allows users to create as many themes as they like. These themes are listed in three pulldown menus on the left: Lite Mode Theme, Dark Mode Them, Theme to Edit. The first menu sets the theme used on all systems below Mojave, and the theme used in Lite Mode on Mojave. The second menu sets the theme used in Dark Mode on Mojave. The final menu sets the theme which Preferences is currently editing
- TeXShop is shipped with several themes, including "LiteTheme" and "DarkTheme". These are the default themes for Lite Mode and Dark Mode. As explained later, there is a way for users to rename or remove Themes known to TeXShop. But TeXShop will always replace "LiteTheme" and "DarkTheme" and use them if other required themes are missing
- Gary Gray contributed two themes, GLG-Lite for Lite mode and GLG-Dark for Dark mode. Gray then tweaked GLG-Dark, and ended up with a dark theme that was was so my better than mine that I ended up using it as the default and thus renaming it DarkTheme. So Gray lost credit, but gained users. Thanks
- Two other themes, SolarizedLite and SolarizedDark, appeared first on the internet before Mojave was introduced. The general page by Ethan Schoonover about this design is https://ethanschoonover.com/solarized/. Specific lite and dark designs were then created in 2012 by "johannesjh": https://github.com/altercation/solarized/issues/167
- A final theme, which I call Manteuffel, was created in 2016 by Christian Manteuffel based on the design of iA Writer. See http://christian.manteuffel.info/blog/ia-writer-inspired-theme-for-texshop
- There is no distinction between themes for Lite Mode and themes for Dark Mode. Thus both Lite Mode Theme and Dark Mode Theme could be set to LiteTheme if the user always wants dark text on a white background
- After editing a theme, push "Cancel" or "OK" to end a preference session. If "Cancel" is pressed, the edited colors will not be saved and the Lite Mode and Dark Mode themes will return to choices before opening the Preference Pane. If "OK" is pressed, the edited colors will be saved and Lite Mode and Dark Mode themes will change to their new values
- But some users may want to edit several different themes during a session. When these users are finished editing their first theme, they should press "Save Edited Theme." This will save the changes for that theme permanently, even if the entire session is ended using the "Cancel" button. Repeat the process for other themes
- To create a new theme, first change "Theme to Edit" to obtain reasonable starting colors for your new theme. Then push "Create New Theme" and fill in the resulting dialog with a title for this threme. Do not use spaces in this title. The new theme will become the "Theme to Edit" and you can begin changing colors
- You may have set color preferences for TeXShop in previous versions of the program. These color preferences still exist, but they are no longer used by the program. To create a theme using these old preference settings, push "New Theme from Prefs". You'll be asked to name the theme; please do not use spaces in this name
- Some people on the internet developed color themes for TeXShop and made them available as shell scripts which reset various TeXShop color setting preferences. These shell scripts still work, but they no longer affect the appearance of TeXShop. After running such a script, you can use "New Theme from Prefs" to convert the "preference color scheme" to a regular Theme
- Recall that various TeXShop items which users can customize are set in ~/Library/TeXShop where Library is the Library folder in your home directory. This folder is often hidden in the Finder, but TeXShop has a menu item "Open ~/Library/TeXShop" to take you there. This folder has various subfolders. For example, one of the folders is named Templates. This folder contains the templates that appear in the Templates toolbar item. Each is an ordinary TeX source file. Adding new files to this Templates folder automatically creates new templates
- There is a new folder in ~/Library/TeXShop named "Themes". This folder contains very small ".plist" files describing the various Themes in TeXShop. If you create a theme you like, give it to others by putting its plist file on the Internet. To install a new theme of this kind, just drop its plist form in the Themes folder
- You can also remove Themes you no longer use by removing their plist files from the Themes folder. Avoid removing themes being used for Lite Mode or Dark Mode (although TeXShop should react gracefully when it runs into this situation). As explained earlier, the themes LiteTheme and DarkTheme will be recreated if they are removed
- When a theme is selected for editing, TeXShop colors will temporarily be reset to those colors. Revising colors is then interactive; as soon as colors change in Preferences, they will also change in TeXShop's Source and Preview windows
- Most colors at the top of the Preferences dialog are self explanatory. The colors "Invisible Chars, Enclosed Chars, Braces" are used for some features introduced by Yusuke Terada; see the menu item "Show Invisible Characters" and the item "Parens Targets & Highlight Color" in the Source Tab of Preferences, and the items "Show Invisible Characters" and "Parens Matching Settings" in the Editor Tab of Preferences. The items "Image Copy Foreground, Background" refer to features set in the Copy Tab of Preferences
- Finally, notice that the transparency of the Source, Preview, and Console windows can be set. These settings bring up a full Color Well, but the colors of these items are ignored and only the alpha values of the choices matter. Here "alpha = 1" is the usual value, and smaller values of alpha make the window more transparent
There are additional features of TeXShop 4.08 that are not related to Mojave:
- The first of these features comes from a bug report by Geoff Pointer. In TeXShop, double clicking on one of {, }, [, ], (, ), or finds the matching symbol and highlights everything in the source between these symbols. Pointer complained that this procedure ignored comments and escaped symbols, so double clicking } might well select a matching { in code that had been commented out, or a match of the form {
- These problems are fixed in version 4.08. When selecting a matching symbol, comments and escaped symbols are ignored. And by the way, TeXShop understands that % does not begin a comment
- TeXShop has another series of methods to deal with such brackets, added to the program by Terada Yusuda. These methods provide immediate feedback as the user is typing. One item flashes the matching bracket as soon as a bracket is typed; another temporarily highlights the region between matching brackets. One item momentarily flashes the screen if an unmatched bracket is typed. Some users depend on these features, while others find them distracting, so each feature can be turned on or off by preference settings at the top of the right column under the TeXShop Preferences "Editor" tab
- The bug reported by Geoff Pointer also applies to these second methods, and has not been fixed there. Because these methods are applied in real time during typing, and because they are used in small regions where the user is actively working, efficiency of code seemed more important than global accuracy. At a later time, this decision may be revisited
- The second of these features was requested by Brian Levine. If text is selected in the TeXShop editor and the selection is longer than two characters, then pressing (, {, (, or $ will enclose the selection in the appropriate brackets. This new behavior can be turned off in TeXShop Preferences by unchecking the item "Editor Can Add Brackets" under the Editor Tab
- The third feature was requested by Stephen Moye. The print dialog now contains an item to set paper size. Moye works with the AMS using a printer with trays for various paper sizes. Previously he had to select the paper size using "Page Setup" before dealing with the Print Dialog and printing. Now only one dialog is involved instead of two
- When Moye initially requested this feature, I told him that printing is controlled entirely by the underlying Cocoa system, so it would be impossible to fulfill his request. This proved to be not entirely true. Hence the new feature
- I'd like to use this occasion for a short aside. This aside may read like a rant about printers, but in fact its purpose is to explain why application programmers shouldn't have to deal with features of particular printers
- For years I've used a $1000 Color Laserprinter weighing 60 pounds. Recently a gear broke on the printer. It would be easy to fix it except that I couldn't figure out how to get the printer down my stairs and into the car. So I decided to buy a new printer and discovered that Laserprinters now cost $400. The store I visited delivers to the doorstep. But they absolutely, positively refused to deliver on up my stairs, or remove my old printer
- I asked the service representative what printer he'd recommend. He recommended a $79 HP. This seemed to me like a sort of "bait and switch in reverse," but I had to print, so I bought the $79 machine
- It prints faster than my old printer. The ink doesn't smudge. It has built in internet and was immediately recognized by all my devices. It calls home when it runs out of ink and new ink is delivered to my door, but so far it ran out of ink only once. It scans. It's light and was easy to carry up stairs. Apparently I was years and years out of date regarding printers, and I have to apologize to all my friends who asked for advice on buying one. (Remember, however, that I printed often when I was teaching, and I print rarely after retiring.
- What has this got to do with TeXShop? Well, TeXShop has essentially no code for handling printers. All of the messy details are handled automatically by Cocoa, Apple, and the printer manufacturers. Imagine what life would be like if programmers had to be involved in that chain. How many printers could we support even if we wanted to
- There are three main interaction points between users and printers. First, printers have their own preference module in Apple's System Preferences where the default page size can be set. This makes sense for most printers, whose paper trays can be configured to hold paper of different sizes, but only one size at a time. Second, the paper size of printers can be changed in "Page Setup", a menu item in TeXShop and most Cocoa programs. And finally, the print dialog handles all sorts of choices, like saving to pdf rather than printing, or many other things
- What is the point of Page Setup? Why is paper size set there? Because many programs use that knowledge to reset the behavior of the program. Should my editor for personal letters be formatted for letter paper? or a4 paper? Aha, Page Setup to the rescue
- However, in TeX, paper size is set by commands in the TeX source or configuration of the entire TeX Distribution. It would make no sense for TeXShop to reach into these sources and change them when Page Setup indicates a new paper size. So the truth is that TeXShop doesn't do anything when the user changes Page Setup. That menu is useless, particularly now that paper size is in the Print Dialog. But I'm keeping it, because otherwise I'd have to answer email questions of the form "where is page setup?
- In recent versions of TeXShop, the syntax coloring code is turning off while the source file loads. Therefore, files aren't syntax colored until the user begins moving the mouse. It is possible that this code was added to fix bugs if syntax coloring is started too soon, but experiments suggest that the bug no longer exists. So in version 4.08, files are syntax colored as soon as they are opened. In case of trouble, it is possible to return to the old behavior using a hidden preferenc
- Gary Gray requested that TeXShop start paragraphs flush with the left margin, but indent remaining paragraph lines. TeXShop 4.08 has this feature. Some users are in the habit of inserting line feeds when their source lines approach the right margin; they will not notice any difference. Other users type several lines of source text between line feeds. The resulting "paragraphs" will now be visible for easier scanning
- This feature is controlled by two new preference settings, available under the Edit Tab. The first sets the indent of the initial paragraph line. By default this is set to 0.0. The second sets the indent of the remaining paragraph lines. By default this is set to 30.0
- The item to set the length of tabs has been grouped together with the two above preference settings. Moreover, one more setting, previously hidden, is available. This setting changes the interline spacing between lines of the source. In particular, users can double space the source text if they desire by changing this value
- The tab length is an integer, and roughly measures the number of letters between tab settings. Thus small values of this setting are reasonable. The entry works even if the edit font is not monospaced
- But the remaining entries for First Line Paragraph Indent, Remaining Lines Paragraph Indent, and Interline Spacing are floating point numbers measured in points in user coordinates. Only limited ranges of these preference settings are allowed, and the Preference dialog will replace unreasonably large or small values by more reasonable maximum and minimum values
- TeXShop has a preference to select the desired dictionary used by the program. Thus the system wide dictionary can be a standard Apple dictionary, while TeXShop can be configured to use a cocoAspell dictionary which does not count LaTeX commands as misspelled. During the course of preparing TeXShop 4.08, we discovered that this Preference item was disconnected in most localizations. This is fixed. If the setting seemed to affect nothing earlier, please try again
- Items in the Templates pull-down menu in the toolbar used to be listed sorted alphabetically. Later, this menu was extended to allow sub-menus, and the sorting feature was lost. It is restored in 4.08
- Another request from Stephen Moye is to add a preference item forcing TeXShop to place the source window in front of the preview window when opening files. (There is already a preference which causes TeXShop to activate the source window after each typesetting job.) A hidden preference item has been created to do thi
- Many programs on the Mac access the internet. Apple recently required that programs use the https protocol rather than http for this access, due to the added security of https. But programs can opt out of that requirement. TeXShop directly accesses the internet in only two places (although it can use iCloud indirectly via Cocoa): it uses Sparkle for program updates, and it downloads two small movies if the user doesn't have them and asks to see them in TeXShop Help. Because faculty web pages at the University of Oregon were served with http, TeXShop opted out
- But the University of Oregon recently switched to https for faculty pages, so Sparkle and movie downloads have been switched to https and TeXShop no longer opts out of this security requirement
- Latexmk has been updated to version 4.60
- The "About" panel has a line giving a range of copyright dates. The range ended in 2017 because I failed to notice that that line was localized. Now it correctly ends in 2018
- Scrolling in the editor window has a "bounce" near the top. We added a hidden preference setting to remove that bounc
- Herbert Schulz revised the "File Encoding.pdf" file in the TeXShop Help menu
- The Help document "Comment Lines and Hidden Preferences" was revised to remove misprints pointed out by Herbert Schulz. Unfortunately, the document hasn't yet been extended with new information
- When TeXShop toolbars showed Text, or both Icons and Text, the Text was broken in many localizations. That was because I did not realize that XCode could set the encoding of the localization files ToolbarItems.strings. The encodings of these files are now all set to UTF-8 Unicode, and Text in the Toolbars finally looks reasonable
- The author of the Spanish localization, Juan Luis Verona, pointed out an important consequence of changing the default encoding in TeXShop to UTF-8. Characters with accents and umlauts can be encoded in Unicode either as special characters, or as combinations of characters. For instance, ü can be encoded as U+00FC or as U+0075 and U+0308. When a LaTeX or pdfLaTeX file is encoded in UTF-8, the typesetting engine calls usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} to interprete the input file. But this package does not understand combination characters. For an explanation of the reason these characters are hard to read, see https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/94418/os-x-umlauts-in-utf8-nfd-yield-package-inputenc-error-unicode-char-u8̈-not/94420#94420
- Luckily, source characters with accents and umlauts typed by the user are encoded as single characters in TeXShop. But if a user copies the text from a pdf and pastes it into the source, combination characters are used. These look fine in TeXShop, but typeset incorrectly because of the inputenc problem discussed above. Incidentally, this problem does not occur when using XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX
- This problem appeared much earlier in Japan, and Yusuke Terada added code to fix the problem. This code is turned on by an item in TeXShop Preferences under the Misc tab. The item used to read "During File Save (for Japan), Automatic UTF-8-Mac to UTF-8 Conversion". In version 4.08 of TeXShop, the words "for Japan" have been removed from this item, but it is still off by default. Users who run into the problem should turn it on. A little caution is required here; for instance, the item caused trouble for users writing in Hebrew (which is why we added the words "for Japan")
- In 2005 Michael Witten, then at M.I.T., added a "Wrap Lines" menu item to TeXShop. This menu offered to wrap lines "never", or "by word", or "by character". Witten added a hidden preference to set the default setting, and this preference is now made public in the Editor tab of TeXShop Preferences
- Most users are likely to stick with the default setting, "by word". I've added the setting because I wanted to write a little essay about line feeds
- In TeX, two line feeds produce a new paragraph; but TeX ignores single line feeds in almost all cases. Exceptions include comments, where adding a line feed in the middle adds the last half of the comment to the active text, and displayed formulas, which often break when line feeds occur in the middle. But otherwise, line feeds are irrelevant
- Thus a TeX paragraph can be written as one long line, or as several sentences, or as several lines broken in the middle. The style users adopt can depend on their background. Writers like to write paragraphs unbroken by line feeds. Programmers, however, tend to add line feeds after each sentence because when they are writing programs rather than TeX, these line feeds show the logical structure of the text. As an extreme example, in Apple's programming language Swift, individual statements need not end with a semicolon if they end with a line feed, so semicolons are only needed when stringing several statements together on a single line
- There are several advantages to writing TeX source as a series of lines, rather than as full paragraphs. Errors in TeX are indicated by line, so they can be found more rapidly when the source is a series of lines. Synctex also works by line and can produce more accurate syncs when lines are used
- Of course some programming languages ignore line feeds, and make it possible to write programs as long multi-command paragraphs, but such paragraphs are virtually impossible to read and programmers avoid them religiously
- Since programs are in practice a series of fairly short lines, programmers have many useful utilities built on the premise that they will deal with files containing short lines. One example is "diff", which can compare two files and clearly list the differences. This utility works well on TeX files written as a series of lines, but becomes more or less useless if the paragraph style is adopted. When programmers moonlight as editors of journal articles and the like, they can become frustrated when their favorite tools no longer apply
- All of this is to suggest to new users that it could be handy to adopt the style of adding line feeds to keep individual lines short. But the advantages are relatively minor and seasoned users have more important things to worry about
- Why is this issue related to TeXShop? The first key point to understand is that TeXShop never adds line feeds to a source file behind the user's back. Any line feed in a source file is present because the user pushed RETURN
- But what should happen if the user is typing and reaches the right side of the window? By default, TeXShop adds a "soft line feed" so additional characters appear on the next line. A "soft line feed" is a line feed that affects the appearance of the text, but is not added to the source file. There are several indications that such line feeds are soft. Resize the window, and notice that the text is reformatted and line feeds appear at different places. But the source doesn't change in any way. This is actually an advantage, because users can resize windows on the fly, and because when a source is moved to a new larger screen, the full window is used rather than ending up with blank space on the right
- In addition, such soft wraps are indicated in the line number column on the left of the window. The first line of a paragraph receives a line number, but if there are additional lines created by soft wraps rather than line feeds in the source, these lines have no line number because they are part of the line started above
- Some programmers, however, intensely dislike soft wraps because they destroy the logical appearance of the source which the programmer has carefully created. These programmers prefer no wrapping by the editor. When the user reaches the right boundary of the text, the editor should begin horizontal scrolling so additional characters are shown on the same line. The disadvantage is that users must scroll the text horizontally to read everything (or make the window wider if the screen has room). The advantage is that the logical structure is visible
- Programmers who work as editors of TeX articles may prefer no wrapping by the editor for another reason: it encourages authors to add those hard RETURN line feeds to the text and thus create source which is a series of fairly short lines. Thus the "Wrap Lines: Never" preference could be thought of as training wheels for the user
- That's my little essay. Adopt the editor behavior which makes you most confortable. Even if you stick with "Wrap Lines: by Word", you might like to get in the habit of adding more hard line feeds to the source
- Final question: why would anyone ever want to "Wrap Lines: by Character"? I have no idea. It is one of the options Apple provides, so it is an option Michael Witten provided, and therefore it is in Preferences
- Final observation: adding this Preference gave me a chance to look closely at Michael Witten's code from so long ago. He did not pick an easy programming task. Witten had to deal with the editor, and the scroll bar, and the layout manager, and "paragraph attributes", and lots of other things. In the end, I'm impressed that it all worked
TeXShop 4.01
- Daniel Nowacki discovered that in some circumstances, most file menus could be disabled in Single Window Mode. This included Show Console, Show Log File, Close, Save, Print, Print Source, Convert Tiff, Abort Typesetting, and Trash AUX Files. The problem is fixed
- Other items in this menu are deliberately disabled in Single Window mode, like Duplicate, Rename, Move To, Revert To, and Page Setup. It is easy to work around these. But Daniel's expanded list was a real nuisance
TeXShop 4.00
- Latexmk updated to version 3.55d
- The change in version 3.98 to set interline spacing and kerning in TeXShop Preferences was hopelessly broken. This was pointed out to me in a phone call from Louis M. Guenin. The method seemed to work, but any lines added later in the editor reverted to the original style. Consequently, this method has been disabled in 4.00. It is still possible to set interline spacing and kerning for individual files as in 3.98, but Preferences cannot set default values. The Preferences code is still in place and correctly sets font and font size. It also appears to set interline spacing and kerning, but when the user clicks "OK", those settings are ignored
TeXShop 3.99
- The German localization was updated
- The original Preference dialog did not fit on the screen when users had an 11 inch or |
