Re: Re[2]: New Beta

Re: Re[2]: New Beta

[David Arnold]

Giuseppe,

This is a good question. There is a Miktex Options, upon which is a Tab for
TeX formats, where one can setup and build formats.

However, this is new to Miktex 2, and traditionally I have always followed
the following steps:

1. Download and extract the new Context beta from Pragma.
2. Set environment variables in texexec.rme and rename to texexec.ini.
3. Rename cont-sys.rme to cont-sys.tex.

Actually, in 2 and 3, I usually just adjust my old texexec.ini and
cont-sys.tex.

4. Run texexec --verbose to see if setting look good.

5. Run texexec --make to build the formats. Because the TeXFormatPath is
set in texexec.ini, the formats are created AND moved into the correct
place in my /localtexmf/miktex/fmt.

6. Then I run 

texexec --make --alone metafun

This builds metafun.mem. Unfortunately, there is no environment variable I
have found yet in texexec.ini that will move this automatically to the
correct spot in my miktex distribution, so I must manually move metafun.mem
to \localtexmf\miktex\mem.

7. Then I run

texexec --make --alone --format=mptopdf

This places mptopdf.efmt in /locatexmf/miktex/fmt. Then I take runperl.exe
and rename it to mptopdf.exe. These all used to be in
\miktex\context\perltk, but Christian has moved texexec.exe into the
\miktex\miktex\bin directory, which is on the path created when Miktex is
installed. This is a cool piece of software which allows me to type

mptopdf filename.1

where filename.1 is Metapost output. The result is the file filename-1.pdf.
Nice, huh? The command also accepts wildcards, as in

mptopdf filename.? or mptopdf filename.*

Old habits die hard, so I'm not quite sure how I want to setup my new
Miktex, but I am learning.

At 04:14 PM 8/24/01 +0200, you wrote:
>
>OB> I have found that this is not texexec but solely MiKTeX problem, the
problem
>OB> is that it seems that MiKTeX accept only restricted lenght of its
arguments and
>OB> cuts off the rest of argument for each of arguments separately, so if
your
>OB> TeXFormatPath contains f:/LocalTeXMF/miktex/fmt, then command line
argument
>OB> --undump=f:/LocalTeXMF/miktex/fmt/cont-en are cut after /miktex, so
TeX think
>OB> you wish to use miktex.efmt, not cont-en.efmt. Once you changed
--undump= to &,
>OB> command line are shorter and ain't cut off. I don't know whether it's
fixed in
>OB> MiKTeX 2.1.
>
>Is it necessary to use TeXFormatPath? I let MiKTeX find the corred
>path (or rather put the format files in the default path ...)
>
>

Re[4]: New Beta

[Giuseppe Bilotta]

David,

Friday, August 24, 2001 you wrote:

DA> 5. Run texexec --make to build the formats. Because the TeXFormatPath is
DA> set in texexec.ini, the formats are created AND moved into the correct
DA> place in my /localtexmf/miktex/fmt.

I move the formats by hand. This is basically the difference, I
believe. Anyway, you could probably report the "limited-length
cmdline" to Christian Schenk ... provided that it's a MiKTeX
limitation and not an operating system limitation as I suspect.

DA> 7. Then I run

DA> texexec --make --alone --format=mptopdf

DA> This places mptopdf.efmt in /locatexmf/miktex/fmt. Then I take runperl.exe
DA> and rename it to mptopdf.exe. These all used to be in
DA> \miktex\context\perltk, but Christian has moved texexec.exe into the
DA> \miktex\miktex\bin directory, which is on the path created when Miktex is
DA> installed.

Small question: where does the texexec.exe provided in the latest
MiKTeX look for the Perl things?

DA>  This is a cool piece of software which allows me to type

DA> mptopdf filename.1

DA> where filename.1 is Metapost output. The result is the file filename-1.pdf.
DA> Nice, huh? The command also accepts wildcards, as in

DA> mptopdf filename.? or mptopdf filename.*

DA> Old habits die hard, so I'm not quite sure how I want to setup my new
DA> Miktex, but I am learning.

I wonder: doesn't the MiKTeX-prodived epstopdf do the same?

Hear you on the list,
Giuseppe

Re: Re[4]: New Beta

[David Arnold]

Giuseppe,

At 11:09 AM 8/25/01 +0200, you wrote:
>David,
>
>Friday, August 24, 2001 you wrote:
>
>DA> 5. Run texexec --make to build the formats. Because the TeXFormatPath is
>DA> set in texexec.ini, the formats are created AND moved into the correct
>DA> place in my /localtexmf/miktex/fmt.
>
>I move the formats by hand. This is basically the difference, I
>believe. 

I could move the formats by hand. At the moment, the Miktex Options, Tex
Formats tab has no options for metafun and mptopdf formats. These can be
place in there I am sure, but I've always liked the power of texexec.pl. 

However, we probably should be thinking of the users that are new to
Context and Miktex and making the transition away from word processors such
as Word as painless as possible. And, right now, the Context installation
is not error free in the Miktex distribution.

>Anyway, you could probably report the "limited-length
>cmdline" to Christian Schenk ... provided that it's a MiKTeX
>limitation and not an operating system limitation as I suspect.

I have. I am waiting to see what information he has for us.

>DA> 7. Then I run
>
>DA> texexec --make --alone --format=mptopdf
>
>DA> This places mptopdf.efmt in /locatexmf/miktex/fmt. Then I take
runperl.exe
>DA> and rename it to mptopdf.exe. These all used to be in
>DA> \miktex\context\perltk, but Christian has moved texexec.exe into the
>DA> \miktex\miktex\bin directory, which is on the path created when Miktex is
>DA> installed.
>
>Small question: where does the texexec.exe provided in the latest
>MiKTeX look for the Perl things?
>
>DA>  This is a cool piece of software which allows me to type
>
>DA> mptopdf filename.1
>
>DA> where filename.1 is Metapost output. The result is the file
filename-1.pdf.
>DA> Nice, huh? The command also accepts wildcards, as in
>
>DA> mptopdf filename.? or mptopdf filename.*
>
>DA> Old habits die hard, so I'm not quite sure how I want to setup my new
>DA> Miktex, but I am learning.
>
>I wonder: doesn't the MiKTeX-prodived epstopdf do the same?

Probably. I haven't used it as yet, probably because I have been an Acrobat
user for several years, which I use to convert my Matlab eps files to pdf
for inclusion in pdftex docs. There is a small explanation of mptopdf here:

http://www.pragma-ade.com/general/sources/mptopdf.pdf

A similar explanation exits on page 426 of:

http://www.pragma-ade.com/general/manuals/beta/metafun-s.pdf

Re: Re[4]: New Beta

[Hans Hagen]

At 10:51 AM 8/25/2001 -0700, David Arnold wrote:

>However, we probably should be thinking of the users that are new to
>Context and Miktex and making the transition away from word processors such
>as Word as painless as possible. And, right now, the Context installation
>is not error free in the Miktex distribution.

i will change whatever is needed, but need clear specs for that, otherwise 
we end up in an add/remove loop; we should also assume the latest miktex; i 
assume that both of you can work that out.

btw, there is a --setfile switch in texexec, that you can use to process a 
dos-like batch file with set var=val lines; that way, you can for instance 
set up winedt on win2k : texexec --setfile=prepare.bat .....

 >I wonder: doesn't the MiKTeX-prodived epstopdf do the same?

that uses GS, while mptopdf uses tex and thereby produces small files with 
the fonts properly embedded; since mptopdf is a simple plain based format, 
it also runs fast.

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
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Re[4]: New Beta

[Hans Hagen]

At 11:09 AM 8/25/2001 +0200, Giuseppe Bilotta wrote:

>I move the formats by hand. This is basically the difference, I
>believe. Anyway, you could probably report the "limited-length
>cmdline" to Christian Schenk ... provided that it's a MiKTeX
>limitation and not an operating system limitation as I suspect.

Context obeys the environment variable "TEXFORMATS" so here i use:

TEXFORMATS=E:\TEX/TEXMF-MSWIN/WEB2C

The current release of web2c / tex live has all internal pool/mem/etc vars 
mapped onto this one

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
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: Re[2]: New Beta

[Hans Hagen]

At 09:14 AM 8/24/2001 -0700, David Arnold wrote:

>However, this is new to Miktex 2, and traditionally I have always followed
>the following steps:
>
>1. Download and extract the new Context beta from Pragma.
>2. Set environment variables in texexec.rme and rename to texexec.ini.
>3. Rename cont-sys.rme to cont-sys.tex.
>
>Actually, in 2 and 3, I usually just adjust my old texexec.ini and
>cont-sys.tex.

i think that this is not needed, unless there is a big change in texexec; 
you only need to move the pl files to the right path [unless you have 
context/perltk in your path]

the cont-sys.tex file is never part o fthe zip, so you can leave your local 
copy untouched [actually, it should be undec /tex/context/usr so that you 
can safely delete the base path] Of course it's always a good idea to look 
into cont-sys.rme esp now, since some font defaults go there, but in a 
while it will stabelize

>4. Run texexec --verbose to see if setting look good.

ok

>5. Run texexec --make to build the formats. Because the TeXFormatPath is
>set in texexec.ini, the formats are created AND moved into the correct
>place in my /localtexmf/miktex/fmt.

>6. Then I run
>
>texexec --make --alone metafun

no --alone needed there since fmtutil does not support mem's at all

>This builds metafun.mem. Unfortunately, there is no environment variable I
>have found yet in texexec.ini that will move this automatically to the
>correct spot in my miktex distribution, so I must manually move metafun.mem
>to \localtexmf\miktex\mem.

hm. there are three ways to set the path: automatically (kpsewhich), 
manually (env var) or in the ini file and i now see that the last one is 
not supported for mp. I've added it and let it default to TeXFormatPath so 
you don't need to change / add something.

>7. Then I run
>
>texexec --make --alone --format=mptopdf

texexec --make --alone mptopdf

will do too, i'll also make that one alone by default

>This places mptopdf.efmt in /locatexmf/miktex/fmt. Then I take runperl.exe
>and rename it to mptopdf.exe. These all used to be in
>\miktex\context\perltk, but Christian has moved texexec.exe into the
>\miktex\miktex\bin directory, which is on the path created when Miktex is
>installed. This is a cool piece of software which allows me to type
>
>mptopdf filename.1
>
>where filename.1 is Metapost output. The result is the file filename-1.pdf.
>Nice, huh? The command also accepts wildcards, as in
>
>mptopdf filename.? or mptopdf filename.*
>
>Old habits die hard, so I'm not quite sure how I want to setup my new
>Miktex, but I am learning.

never change old habits when they are ok, so let me fix things that are 
broken instead -)

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
-------------------------------------------------------------------------