running mp

running mp

[Hans Hagen]

[forwarded mail; can you use an address that is known to the list?]

From: Daniel Joyce <daniel.a.joyce@worldnet.att.net>

>         Only MetaPost commands that do not contain embedded btex etex 
> commands
>seem to work.
>
>         If it has btex etex in it, it never generates a mpgraph.1 file.
>
>         Also, even though I have it set up so that texexec should call 
> Mpost, it
>never does. I have to do...
>
>         texexec --pdf foo.tex
>         texexec --mptex mpgraph.mp
>         texexec --mptex mprun.mp
>         texexec --pdf foo.tex
>
>         If I look in the log, it shows the command chaining that should 
> mean that
>it's doing it all by itself, but I still have to run it manually, it has no
>effect.
>
>         Also, if the MP command has a btex etex pair in it, when running 
> texexec
>--mptex, it doesn't say it's creating mpgraph.1, it says it's creating a
>dvi file, but no dvi file is to be found when it completes.

I'm a bit puzzled and it's hard to identify the problem from a distance. 
The btex/etex part of mp is rather fuzzy and since the mpto tools work on 
temp files, it's hard to trace where things go wrong. In texexec, I try to 
prevent some problems (like breaking too long lines, identifying btex and 
alike), but i still rely on the filtering of the tools (maybe i should let 
texexec take care of that too).

Now, when you embed mp code in your tex doc, context itself will try to 
identify btex/textext/... constructs and when running 'realtime' it will 
run either mp without or with tex processing. If you use the write18 
method, you can force tex runs with

\forceMPTEXgraphictrue

but normally this is not needed.

If you enable write 18, as well as set the switches in cont-sys.tex (see 
cont-sys.rme for what is needed), the realtime options whould work. If this 
works ok, then the --automp option should also work (forces non real time 
and identifies how to run).

[here, when i make graphics, i always use the real time options, but i run 
manuals with --automp; the whole metafun manual runs without problems and 
it's my big test case, since it has about every nasty call you can imagine.]

If you still have problems, send me the smallest problematic file possible.

Hans
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                                   Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE | pragma@wxs.nl
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