mp file not compiling

mp file not compiling

[Aditya Mahajan]

Hi,
  Is the mp support for btex...etex broken in the latest context 
(ConTeXt  ver: 2006.04.27 15:59) The following does not compile,

\starttext
\startMPpage
   label(btex This is a test etex, origin) ;
\stopMPpage
\stoptext

I get an error

! Unable to make mpx file.
l.123 label(btex
                   This is a test etex

Even an mp file

beginfig(1)
   label(btex hello world etex, origin) ;
endfig
                                        end;

with texexec --mptex gives the same error message.

Can somebody confirm this? Or is something broken at my end?

Aditya
-- 
Aditya Mahajan, EECS Systems, University of Michigan
http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~adityam || Ph: 7342624008

Re: mp file not compiling

[Peter Rolf]

Aditya Mahajan wrote:
> Hi,
>   Is the mp support for btex...etex broken in the latest context 
> (ConTeXt  ver: 2006.04.27 15:59) The following does not compile,
> 
> \starttext
> \startMPpage
>    label(btex This is a test etex, origin) ;
> \stopMPpage
> \stoptext
> 
> I get an error
> 
> ! Unable to make mpx file.
> l.123 label(btex
>                    This is a test etex
> 
> Even an mp file
> 
> beginfig(1)
>    label(btex hello world etex, origin) ;
> endfig
>                                         end;
> 
> with texexec --mptex gives the same error message.
> 
> Can somebody confirm this? Or is something broken at my end?
> 
Both examples work here (27.4.2006). My best wishes for a fast and
successful bug hunt ;)

Greets, Peter

> Aditya

Re: mp file not compiling

[Mojca Miklavec]

On 5/3/06, Aditya Mahajan wrote:
> Hi,
>   Is the mp support for btex...etex broken in the latest context
> (ConTeXt  ver: 2006.04.27 15:59) The following does not compile,
>
> \starttext
> \startMPpage
>    label(btex This is a test etex, origin) ;
> \stopMPpage
> \stoptext
>
> I get an error
>
> ! Unable to make mpx file.
> l.123 label(btex
>                    This is a test etex
>
> Even an mp file
>
> beginfig(1)
>    label(btex hello world etex, origin) ;
> endfig
>                                         end;
>
> with texexec --mptex gives the same error message.
>
> Can somebody confirm this? Or is something broken at my end?

First of all:
1. in case you are using windows, update "texmfstart.exe" from
cont-win.zip (you have to do that every now and then)
2. check that "texexec" is a synonym (for example texexec.bat under
windows or an executable) for running "texmfstart [new]texexec"
3. Hans would say that you have to use "textext" instead of btex ... etex


I doubt that this came with the latest distribution. The btex/etex and
textext functionality is  a bit broken anyway: sometimes it works and
sometimes it doesn't. It depends a lot on the system that you use
(MikTeX/tetex/standalone), on texexec that you run (texexec or
newtexexec), how you run it (a batch/shell script with "texmfstart
[new]texexec" or from linux/windows binaries that come with other
distributions than the standalone one).

It might also be that "write18" is set to off, it might be that some
\runMP[TEX]graphic[s]true, \forceMP[TEX]graphic[s]true are set to
false (chech your cont-usr.tex file). (I don't know which variable
does what, but if you try to use an undefined one, TeX will complain
anyway. Check the sources or try to switch on all the possible
combinations of the commands mentioned above.)


Since the topic is already open: Hans, if you find out what is going
on with those input-ed strings, can you please also check what has to
be done to enable "textext" under XeTeX? The more combinations I try,
the more I break the system as the whole, so that I even had to
reinstall everything. How does "runtexmpjob" know which TeX engine to
use? Here the labels are processed with pdfTeX instead of being
processed with XeTeX. I also have some problems with defining the
proper font for those labels, but that's another story anyway.

Thanks a lot,
    Mojca

Re: mp file not compiling

[Aditya Mahajan]

On Wed, 3 May 2006, Mojca Miklavec wrote:

> On 5/3/06, Aditya Mahajan wrote:
>> Hi,
>>   Is the mp support for btex...etex broken in the latest context
>> (ConTeXt  ver: 2006.04.27 15:59) The following does not compile,
>>
>> \starttext
>> \startMPpage
>>    label(btex This is a test etex, origin) ;
>> \stopMPpage
>> \stoptext
>>
>> I get an error
>>
>> ! Unable to make mpx file.
>> l.123 label(btex
>>                    This is a test etex
>>
>> Even an mp file
>>
>> beginfig(1)
>>    label(btex hello world etex, origin) ;
>> endfig
>>                                         end;
>>
>> with texexec --mptex gives the same error message.
>>
>> Can somebody confirm this? Or is something broken at my end?
>
> First of all:
> 1. in case you are using windows, update "texmfstart.exe" from
> cont-win.zip (you have to do that every now and then)

I am indeed using windows. I deleted my entire tree and downloaded the 
latest mswincontext.zip, uninstalled it. I verified that 
texmfstart.exe is in the path and ran texmfstart newtexexec --mptex 
and get the same error.

> 2. check that "texexec" is a synonym (for example texexec.bat under
> windows or an executable) for running "texmfstart [new]texexec"

I did check that. texexec is a synonym for texmfstart newtexexec. 
Infact, the example does not compile on live.contextgarden.net I get 
the same error message when I compile the tex file there.

> 3. Hans would say that you have to use "textext" instead of btex ... etex

with
\startMPpage
   label(textext("This is a test"),origin) ;
\stopMPpage

I get

|| >> test1-mpgraph.mp
|| >> test1-mpgraph.mpx
|| ! Unable to make mpx file.
|| l.124 texpictures[1] := btex
||                              This is a test etex ;

as textext internally uses btex/etex. In the pdf file I get *unknown* 
instead of *This is a test*. I guess that unknown is textext's 
fallback mechanism.


> I doubt that this came with the latest distribution. The btex/etex and
> textext functionality is  a bit broken anyway: sometimes it works and
> sometimes it doesn't.

This is the first time I found it to be broken.

> It depends a lot on the system that you use
> (MikTeX/tetex/standalone), on texexec that you run (texexec or
> newtexexec), how you run it (a batch/shell script with "texmfstart
> [new]texexec" or from linux/windows binaries that come with other
> distributions than the standalone one).

I am using the standalone distribution from pragma on windows.

> It might also be that "write18" is set to off, it might be that some
> \runMP[TEX]graphic[s]true, \forceMP[TEX]graphic[s]true are set to
> false (chech your cont-usr.tex file). (I don't know which variable
> does what, but if you try to use an undefined one, TeX will complain
> anyway. Check the sources or try to switch on all the possible
> combinations of the commands mentioned above.)

I had \runMPgraphicstrue and \runMPTEXgraphicstrue in cont-sys.tex
I added \forceMPTEXgraphictrue to cont-sys.tex and remade the 
formats. Still, I get the same error.


I checked in texmf.cnf and mpxcommand is set to makempx

If I run makempx.exe test.mp test.mpx I get

dvitomp.exe: mpx3568.dvi: No such file or directory
makempx: Command failed: dvitomp mpxerr.dvi test.mpx
makempx: can't move mpx3568.dvi to mpxerr.dvi: No such file or directory

mpx3568.mp has one line "end." and mpxerr.log is empty.

The help of makempx says that makempx is equivalent to
    mpto -tex, texexec --batch --once --nomp, and dvitomp

If I follows these steps manaually, adding --dvi to texexec I get an 
mpx file. My guess that the error is because

1. texmfstart texexec calls newtexexec
2. On the standalone distribution, newtexexec produces pdf by default.

To check this, I created a texexec.bat file in my current directory so 
that it calls texmfstart texexec.pl and everything works fine now.

Thus, for the time being, I have changed my texexec.bat to call 
texexec.pl. To use newtexexec, makempx should be changed to call

texexec --batch --once --nomp --dvi
                               ^^^^^^

Aditya

-- 
Aditya Mahajan, EECS Systems, University of Michigan
http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~adityam || Ph: 7342624008

Re: mp file not compiling

[Taco Hoekwater]

Aditya Mahajan wrote:
> To check this, I created a texexec.bat file in my current directory so 
> that it calls texmfstart texexec.pl and everything works fine now.
> 
> Thus, for the time being, I have changed my texexec.bat to call 
> texexec.pl. To use newtexexec, makempx should be changed to call
> 
> texexec --batch --once --nomp --dvi
>                                ^^^^^^

This addition makes sense anyways, just be on the safe side regarding
local configuration files.

Cheers, Taco