metafun: problems, problems & problems again

metafun: problems, problems & problems again

[Mojca Miklavec]

Hello,

This metafun will soon drive me crazy.

1. I can't make textext work

Once upon a time I only had problems in MikTeX, now standone is
causing me problems as well. I have:
- write18 / -shell-escape enabled
- \runMPgraphicstrue
  \runMPTEXgraphicstrue
  \useMETAFUNformattrue
  \protectbufferstrue
  enabled (I don't know where to look further).
But I still get no figures at all under MikTeX and "undefined" labels
with the standalone.

2. mptopdf doesn't work under MikTeX (as already mentioned), but
that's not so critical since I can still use texmfstart or write my
own .bat file to run it

3. metafun reformats the whole metapost source (including that in
verbatin) and so you can never predict what will come out; often the
TeX commands fail to work and while it's possible to easily debug
plain metapost sources, metafun swallows most of the error warnings
somehow, so you don't get any output, but no error reports either.

4. I have problems with \loadfontfilesoncetrue. I searched through
mailing list archives and found out that that problems was already
present in 2002 and that someone solved it by deleting all ConTeXt
files from MikTeX. I don't understand why since I have fresh MikTeX
distribution on the computer, but I'll try that.

5. I hoped to be able to use gnuplot with context terminal, but the
file I produced crashes pdfetex 1.30.3--2.2 (in stand-alone distro).
1.21a under MikTeX doesn't crash, but since there is no output it
might be that the older version never gets to the point where it would
crash. A very rare event. The files that make the pdftex crash are
located here: http://pub.mojca.org/gnuplot/pdftex-crash/

Thanks a lot for any help & suggestions,
    Mojca

Re: metafun: problems, problems & problems again

[Hans Hagen]

Mojca Miklavec wrote:
> Hello,
>
> This metafun will soon drive me crazy.
>
> 1. I can't make textext work
>
> Once upon a time I only had problems in MikTeX, now standone is
> causing me problems as well. I have:
> - write18 / -shell-escape enabled
> - \runMPgraphicstrue
>   \runMPTEXgraphicstrue
>   \useMETAFUNformattrue
>   \protectbufferstrue
>   enabled (I don't know where to look further).
> But I still get no figures at all under MikTeX and "undefined" labels
> with the standalone.
>   
that normally means that no tex subruns take place (or wrong ones)

(maybe the system command is not executed, in the log you can see what 
write 18 does)

you can try (on a mp file):

texexec --mptex somefile.mp

and see what is reported


> 2. mptopdf doesn't work under MikTeX (as already mentioned), but
> that's not so critical since I can still use texmfstart or write my
> own .bat file to run it
>   
forget about something mptopdf.exe, the bat method using texmfstart is 
the way to go
> 3. metafun reformats the whole metapost source (including that in
> verbatin) and so you can never predict what will come out; often the
> TeX commands fail to work and while it's possible to easily debug
> plain metapost sources, metafun swallows most of the error warnings
> somehow, so you don't get any output, but no error reports either.
>   
there is normally a <jobname>-mpgraph.log file
> 4. I have problems with \loadfontfilesoncetrue. I searched through
>   
hm, loadfontfilesonce is not there (any more)
> mailing list archives and found out that that problems was already
> present in 2002 and that someone solved it by deleting all ConTeXt
> files from MikTeX. I don't understand why since I have fresh MikTeX
> distribution on the computer, but I'll try that.
>   
maybe some old cont-sys.tex file?
> 5. I hoped to be able to use gnuplot with context terminal, but the
> file I produced crashes pdfetex 1.30.3--2.2 (in stand-alone distro).
> 1.21a under MikTeX doesn't crash, but since there is no output it
> might be that the older version never gets to the point where it would
> crash. A very rare event. The files that make the pdftex crash are
> located here: http://pub.mojca.org/gnuplot/pdftex-crash/
>   
Hans 

-----------------------------------------------------------------
                                          Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
              Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
     tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com
                                             | www.pragma-pod.nl
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Re: metafun: problems, problems & problems again

[Mojca Miklavec]

On 2/20/06, Hans Hagen wrote:
> > 4. I have problems with \loadfontfilesoncetrue. I searched through
> >
> hm, loadfontfilesonce is not there (any more)

But it's in all my -mpgraph.mp documents. Anyhow, other ConTeXt
commands aren't recognized either.

I reinstalled ConTeXt/MikTeX for the second or the third time and now
it doesn't crash any more (but now I get complaints about all the
ConTeXt-specific commands).

However, I discovered something strange in the log files in temporary
folder (they were left there while I stil had the crashing version of
pdfTeX). Log files about processing mpx314.tex files have "preloaded
format=plain" in them. Is it possible that they are processed with the
wrong switch for MikTeX (with its own specifics)? This might explain
the "loadfontfileonce" and other errors. There's usually no chance to
see those log files (if pdfTeX didn't crash, I wouldn't see them).
PdfTeX in standalone ConTeXt crashes before that, so it just manages
to create some trash empty directory which is deleted again after I
click "no, don't report that error to Microsoft, please".

> > mailing list archives and found out that that problems was already
> > present in 2002 and that someone solved it by deleting all ConTeXt
> > files from MikTeX. I don't understand why since I have fresh MikTeX
> > distribution on the computer, but I'll try that.
> >
> maybe some old cont-sys.tex file?

Which one???? I just realized that there are actually two cont-sys.
One from user/cont-sys.rme and the other one from base/cont-sys.ori.
They are (almost) identical.

I have overwritten the MikTeX dir with files from cont-tfm.zip. And
now MikTeX crashes (crashed, I'm writing this mail in non-cronological
order) with the sample mentioned below as well. (OK, there were two
minor mistakes in the sample files I've put online, but no reason why
pdfTeX should crash on it. pdfTeX crashes approximately on the moment
when mpx files are generated.)

I used MikTeX on another computer and during playing with those
cont-sys.tex and cont-usr.tex, refreshing & remaking formats, the
behaviour changed from non-crashing into the crashing one, but I don't
manage to repeat that behaviour on my computer. Since I came back, it
doesn't crash any more. Mist.

[again one paragraph that should be written in past tense] But on my
computer I simply don't manage to change anything. Keeps crashing
while processing those mpx files and after that it complains that
context-specific commands are unknown (seems as if everything between
btex ... etex would be processed with latex). Is it OK that those
mpx314 files end with \end{document}?

Is there any way to explore why the crash would happen? I get "An
unhandled win32 exception occured in pdfetex.exe [2384]", 3164, 812,
1752, 2776, ...

Mojca

Re: metafun: problems, problems & problems again

[Taco Hoekwater]

Mojca Miklavec wrote:

> Is it OK that those mpx314 files end with \end{document}?

Yes, that is 'normal': plain TeX (and thereby ConTeXt) only sees the
\end command, and LaTeX/SliTeX sees the whole \end{document} (this
stuff was written before ConTeXt became popular).

> Is there any way to explore why the crash would happen? I get "An
> unhandled win32 exception occured in pdfetex.exe [2384]", 3164, 812,
> 1752, 2776, ...

A (likely) candidate is an (software-ignored) attempt to write to
a file that is still in use by another application. It is quite
possible that this is the result of an I/O timing error that is in
itself caused by a misconfigured win32 install (harddisks in ms-dos
compatility mode, for example, or soundcard that share interrupts
with the harddisk controller.

The crash information means absolutely nothing to me, sorry.

Cheers, Taco

Re: metafun: problems, problems & problems again

[Mojca Miklavec]

On 2/20/06, Hans Hagen wrote:
> Mojca Miklavec wrote:
> > But I still get no figures at all under MikTeX and "undefined" labels
> > with the standalone.
> >
> that normally means that no tex subruns take place (or wrong ones)
>
> (maybe the system command is not executed, in the log you can see what
> write 18 does)
>
> you can try (on a mp file):
>
> texexec --mptex somefile.mp
>
> and see what is reported

I traced the problem of getting annoying "\loadfontfilesoncetrue
undefined" messages down to the line 2936 in texexec.pl, sub RunMPX:
   if ( ( $Format eq '' ) || ( $Format =~ /^cont.*/io ) ) {
      RunConTeXtFile( $MpTmp, "tex" );
   } else {
      RunSomeTeXFile( $MpTmp, "tex" );
   }

The first subroutine (RunConTeXtFile) is executed (as it should be),
but it calls TeX instead of "ConTeXt" (format) and I have no idea how
to change this behaviour. That's why all ConTeXt commands are
undefined.

The same is true for tex.rb, line 1442:
   if context then
      ok = RunConTeXtFile(mptex)
   else
      ok = RunSomeTeXFile(mptex)
   end

It goes into the first part of the if sentence, but it nevertheless
runs (plain) tex. Except that in this time it was far from evident for
me where this RunConTeXtFile came from (I didn't see the definition
anywhere except if it calls Perl at that place).

On 2/20/06, Taco Hoekwater wrote:
> Mojca Miklavec wrote:
> > Is there any way to explore why the crash would happen? I get "An
> > unhandled win32 exception occured in pdfetex.exe [2384]", 3164, 812,
> > 1752, 2776, ...
>
> A (likely) candidate is an (software-ignored) attempt to write to
> a file that is still in use by another application. It is quite
> possible that this is the result of an I/O timing error that is in
> itself caused by a misconfigured win32 install (harddisks in ms-dos
> compatility mode, for example, or soundcard that share interrupts
> with the harddisk controller.

Might be. I also heard from some latex people that they had problems
with pdflatex on some disks. It happened to me on two different
computers on two different distros (MikTeX, standalone). Some crashing
went away when I removed \setupoutput[pdf] from cont-sys.tex (but I'm
stil confused since there are two cont-sys files, one .rme and one
.ori. Which one should be used? They are identical, but why would one
want to have the same file at two places?)

Mojca

Re: metafun: problems, problems & problems again

[Hans Hagen]

Mojca Miklavec wrote:
>
> went away when I removed \setupoutput[pdf] from cont-sys.tex (but I'm
> stil confused since there are two cont-sys files, one .rme and one
> .ori. Which one should be used? They are identical, but why would one
> want to have the same file at two places?)
>   
because that way you still have an original when you mess up your local 
cont-sys.tex file; when no cont-sys.tex file is present (not in the 
distribution because it's not to be overwritten) context will load the 
rme file; the rme file also shows the latest greatest options that make 
sense to go there

btw, setupoutput[pdf] is not supposed to be in the cont-sys.tex file; 
newtexec defaults to pdf output anyway

Hans

-----------------------------------------------------------------
                                          Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
              Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
     tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com
                                             | www.pragma-pod.nl
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Re: metafun: problems, problems & problems again

[Taco Hoekwater]

Mojca Miklavec wrote:
> 
> 5. I hoped to be able to use gnuplot with context terminal, but the
> file I produced crashes pdfetex 1.30.3--2.2 (in stand-alone distro).
> 1.21a under MikTeX doesn't crash, but since there is no output it
> might be that the older version never gets to the point where it would
> crash. A very rare event. The files that make the pdftex crash are
> located here: http://pub.mojca.org/gnuplot/pdftex-crash/

Mojca,

What commandline do I have to run to get a crash? (as opposed to
a TeX error message)

Cheers, Taco