Re: texexec

[Aditya Mahajan <adityam@umich.edu>]

On Sun, 7 May 2006, Hans Hagen wrote:

> Aditya Mahajan wrote:
>> On Fri, 5 May 2006, Hans Hagen wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I'd like to make the ruby version of texexec the default. Are there any
>>> strong objections to this?
>>>
>>
>> Is ruby stable with respect to system calls? Is the behaviour
>> consistent on Linux and Windows? Are there active Ruby users on the
>> list who can comment on this?
>>
> we run newtexexec on windows and linux without problems (system calls in
> perl are actually more problematic, or at least in th epast few years
> differences between platforms have given me many headaches)
>> I have debugged my recent failure of metapost graphics to using
>> one-click installer (RC2) for windows. From tex.rb
>>
>>    report(command) if getvariable('verbose')
>>    ok = system(command)
>>    if ok && File.appended(mptex, "\\end\n") then
>>
>>
>> This is failing on my system. Can others using windows test this.
>>
> you mean that ok is false?

Yes. For some reason, system(...) returns false whenever there is > in 
the command. Maybe, in the future, the functionality of mpto can be 
incorporated into (new)texexec. This is not needed right away, as I 
managed to get rid of the mess in my system by using cygwin binaries 
for ruby.

>>
>> Notice that the second test is failing. So, in tex.rb, the system
>> command fails and I do not get mp-test-01-test.tex file! Can anyone
>> else using one-click installer for ruby on windows confirm this?
>>
> i must check that (i don't use the one click installer) \

Turns out that the problem is not with the one click installer. It has 
to do with the fact that I also had cygwin installed (even though I 
was using cmd.exe for tests). I have installed cygwin ruby and 
everything (at least everything related to context) work fine.

The conclusion seems to be that for windows either:
i) If you do not use cygwin, use any precompiled port of ruby
or
ii) If you have cygwin, use the cygwin port of ruby
or
iii) Compile your own binaries. :)

I am still confused on why windows ruby have trouble with cgywin being 
present, but I will leave debugging that to future. Right now, 
newtexec is working correctly.

Aditya

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