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I use VS code with the Latex workshop on Mac and it works perfectly fine when writing a paper. But I don't understand "pdflatex", "mactex", "texlive" or something other people are saying

What are the essential components to compile a paper using Mac? How can I check what is working behind my VS code? (I don't remember what I installed so far to make my environment possible )

SpaceTAKA
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    What's your question? If you installed LaTeX workshop, then you're using LaTeX workshop, no? – user202729 Nov 25 '23 at 04:11
  • @user202729 Oh, you mean I can write a paper using Latex only if I instal VS code and Latex workshop? – SpaceTAKA Nov 25 '23 at 04:49
  • No that just gives you an editor to write the source code, you need a tex system (usually mactex on a mac) to actually process your document. – David Carlisle Nov 25 '23 at 09:21
  • As with every other coding project, there is always an editor (VS code in this case) and the actual program that processes the code you write in this editor (pdflatex in this case). TeXLive is a distribution, that is, a software bundle that contains pdflatex but also a lot of helpful other software and packages. And MacTeX finally is an application that installs TeXLive on your computer. – Jasper Habicht Nov 27 '23 at 09:58

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The configuration of LaTeX-Workshop is in the settings.json file, you can open it to see all the tools and recipes you have configured. And you could also see the recipes from the TeX badge in the left sidebar.

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  • TeX Live is a TeX distribution (type tex -v in terminal to see the version)
  • LaTeX is a "TeX format" (a set of TeX macros), TeX Live includes LaTeX and several more TeX formats.
  • MacTeX is a package which installs TeX Live on the Macintosh (see https://tug.org/mactex/)
  • pdflatex, xelatex, lualatex are compilation commands (for differences, see https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/22825/241621)
wipet
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Stephen
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