Re: new version luatex / mkiv

["Wolfgang Werners-Lucchini" <wwl@musensturm.de>]

On 12 Apr 2008 at 12:00, ntg-context-request@ntg.nl wrote:

Hallo Taco,

> Real API documentation will be provided once I am past the "alpha"
> release stage. At the moment, I do not trust the API enough to
> expose it to anything except controlled environments (lua mplib,
> newmpost)
> 
> >> Isn't mplib a dll under windows?
> 
> It is possible to build the unix version as a .so because support
> for that comes from autofoo automatically, but that is not yet
> officially supported: debugging dynamic libraries is harder than 
> debugging static code.

On the other side, it is very easy to replace a dll by a new version, 
if the interface stays stable.

> MPlib could become a dll on windows eventually, but first someone
> will have to explain to me how to create a windows dll (and I vastly
> prefer a solution that does not involve me having to pay Microsoft any
> money).

You have not to pay anything, to build a Dll. And there is Msys for 
example, which works in a unix-environment under windows. Should be 
no problem.

> I have exactly zero knowledge in that area and do not have a
> Windows installation either: the one and only XP machine here is my 
> wife's gaming machine and that is strictly offlimits to me.

:-)

> Future versions of luatex and mpost itself (and potential other
> texlive programs) will almost certainly remain statically linked 
> because that is much more convenient for us as maintainers.

If there is more than one program, which is using mplib, you have to 
update all theses programs, if you make some mplib changes.

But I think that a dll could very much boost the metapost usage. It 
would than be very easy to write third party software.

Wolfgang

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