Re: MetaPost problem under MikTex 2.9 x64 / WinEdt

On Wed, Jul 6, 2011 at 12:36 PM, Lutz G. Lucht <[email protected]> wrote:
> *Hi,
>
> here is a simple .mp sample and the mp-execution error response with
> comments. Do you know what is going wrong (in 10 years old MikTex /
> WinEdt versions the program used for LaTeX was executed correctly due to
> a localtexmf file written by an expert)? *
> /*
> mp-program name: testlabel.mp*/
>
> verbatimtex
>
> \documentclass[10pt,a4paper]{article}
> \usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}
> \begin{document}
> etex

The above is for older versions of mpost, and requires that TEX be set
to latex or the -tex=latex option be passed to mpost.  For the current
metapost , check "mthelp mpman", chapter 13, which describes two
new commands: TEXPRE and TEXPOST added as of metapost version 0.9.
The above lines should
be replaced by:

input TEX;
TEXPRE("%&latex" & char(10) &
"\documentclass[10pt,a4paper]{article}\usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}\begin{document}");
TEXPOST("\end{document}");

> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% testlabel.1
> beginfig(1);
> [...]
> draw z0;
> label(btex $0$ etex, (3u,3u)); /*%causes the problem*/
> endfig;
> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
> bye
>
> /*Executing MetaPost with MikTex 2.9-x64 / WinEdt 6.0 (same with MikTex
> 2.5 / WinEdt 5.5) yields*/
>
>  >> testlabel..mpx
> ! Unable to make mpx file
>
> 1.27 label(btex
>                         $0$ etex, (3u,3u));
> The two files given above are one of your source files
> and an auxiliary file need to read to find out what your
> btex..etex blocks mean. If you don't know why I had trouble,
> try running it manually through MptoTeX, Te, and DVItoMP
> 1 output file written: testlabel.1
>
> *I do neither understand this, nor do I know how to follow the advice of
> running the file manually... In fact, I only need to know how to make
> the mp program running -- and to get, maybe, some explanations
> afterwards (if they could be understood by a non-expert). *
>
> *There are several other problems (activating dvi-yap inverse search,
> activating \begin{...} * \end{...} features, activating some localtex.mf
> file which contains often used images, style files, logos or programs
> like "foils",...). Unfortunety, reading several parts of the included
> manual resulted in the feeling to be completely lost, as I did not learn
> how to solve only one of the above problems. In any case, I do not like
> to modify ini files.

It is not easy to write documentation that is both accessible to non-expert
users and yet also complete for the experts.  In the final analysis, a
non-expert
can become expert, but if the documentation lacks critical details even an
expert will be hard pressed to fill in the gaps.

> Does MikTex 2.5 properly work under Windows 7 32bit? Indeed,  think of
> returning to parent versions of MikTex 2.9.

You would encounter warnings of the form:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
! You are attempting to make a LaTeX format from a source file
! That is more than five years old.
!
! If you enter <return> to scroll past this message then the format
! will be built, but please consider obtaining newer source files
! before continuing to build LaTeX.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

! LaTeX source files more than 5 years old!.

In practice this means you might have to generate formats
manually on the command line.



-- 
George N. White III <[email protected]>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia

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