Re: asked Hans Hagen after VTeX drivers (etc)

["MicroPress Inc." <support@micropress-inc.com>]

At 08:25 PM 8/30/01 +0200, you wrote:
>At 09:51 PM 8/27/2001 -0400, MicroPress Inc. wrote:
>
>
>>It is really all documented, albeit in different places. I do not have a clear
>
>i didn't doubt that -)
>
>>idea _which_ specials you need. If graphics, the easiest way to look at
>>vtex.def for the graphicx package. If hyperstuff, see the links and the
>>outline sections in the manual. If pdf-forms, it is in forms.pdf, or just use
>>pdfmarks [the build-in PS interpreter does understand pdfmarks, so this
>>is one way of doing everything.]
>
>ok, and since it probably also understands the dvips / dvipsone ps 
>specials, i guess that the driver is already there -)

No it does not. The special syntax is sufficiently close that this should
not be a big issue.

>currently i'm busy, but in a couple of months ... i would also perfer to 
>test the win version [i did once but had to quit due to lack of disk space 
>since vtex wanted to install fonts; i want to use the texmf tree -) ; also, 
>i probably need to add a section to the context installation manual

When you are ready, ask for the latest Win version. Or install VTeX/free
which is more texmf-like & I'll just email the Win .exe's.

>
>>Ugghh, I'm not so sure this is the case. We did a number of high-level
>>packages, like business charts of the function plot. But there is just
>>no way to provide high level packages for everything a user may want
>>to do, and it is unclear if programming some low-level (but std) postscript
>>is really much worse than programming metapost.
>
>sure, but connectivity to for instance context spacing and fonts as well as 
>user interface aspects .... i can look into that later

Arrgh, the interesting stuff....

>
>>of MetaPost is specifically "inclusion"; MetaPost cannot change the
>>material which comes from TeX (like some PSTricks intercepts do) or
>
>i think that you underestimate metapost here
>
>>from a non-MetaPost EPS data (like PSFrag does). There are situations
>>when you may want MetaPost, and there are ones when you may want
>>something else.
>
>right, but i would always wrap the low level ps
>
>> >some font trickery on the other hand looks interesting [and i
>> >wonder how hard it would be to extend pdftex with it];
>>
>>Makes me wonder what that is exactly... there is quite a lot of font
>>trickery there. If you are talking about MM support, then you really
>>need a PS interpreter present for proper job. Some other things
>>probably can be done on top of the pdftex framework.
>
>no, i was more refering to the fact that vtex can do things like outline 
>fonts etc using the \font specifier

Specifically this should not be impossible, albeit it is tricky when used
with color.

>
>> >another interesting
>> >vtex feature is the html output but i never looked into that
>>
>>Hmm, not sure it is actually interesting. Mode 10 (HTML) output is almost
>>entirely done by a macro package.
>
>ah, then it's of no use to context users u fear, 

Did not say this; but it would mean rewriting a rather complicated LaTeX
style. In fact, not even rewriting, but doing from scratch: the style is used
to translate the high-level concepts (\section, \label, ..) which -- if exist
in context at all -- will be totally different. The entire HTML mode in VTeX
is just a small set of extensions to make macro-level translation possible.
So context support of our HTML mode is a huge task which is not 
worth doing when something better is just around the corner.

>but berend is working on 
>html anyway

Huh? berend?

>
>Hans
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------
>                                   Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE | pragma@wxs.nl
>                       Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
>  tel: +31 (0)38 477 53 69 | fax: +31 (0)38 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>

---------------------------------------------
Michael Vulis
MicroPress

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