[tex-live] [mp-implementors] New mplib-based mpost commandline

[Hans Hagen]

Taco Hoekwater wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> Many of you will probably know already that I spent the last half
> year converting metapost into an application library. I have not
> only done that, but also converted the pascal web source code to
> C web, and that means the commandline had to be re-implemented.
> 
> Now, the new mplib-based mpost commandline is not exactly the same
> as the old version, and I welcome advice and thoughts on how to
> proceed.
> 
> Here is an overview of the commandlines so far:
> 
> 
> old (1.003)                  new (1.091)
> -------------------------    -------------------------
> -ini                         -ini
> -interaction=STRING          -interaction=STRING
> -jobname=STRING              -jobname=STRING
> -kpathsea-debug=NUMBER       -kpathsea-debug=NUMBER
> -mem=MEMNAME                 -mem=MEMNAME or &MEMNAME
> -progname=STRING             -progname=STRING
> -tex=TEXPROGRAM              -tex=TEXPROGRAM
> -T, -troff                   -troff
> -help                        -help
> -version                     -version
> -translate-file=TCXNAME
> -8bit
> [-no]-parse-first-line
> [-no]-file-line-error
> -halt-on-error
> -output-directory=DIR
> -recorder
> 
> 
> The missing switches were done in the web2c change file, and often
> that is the only reason why they are not implemented, but there
> are some exceptions. Before the official release, we should decide
> which of the missing commandline switches need implementing:
> 
> -T      I thought this was ugly, so I skipped it, but it would be
>         easy to reinstate. Still, I find it ugly ...

indeed, can go away

> 
> -translate-file=TCXNAME
> -8bit
>         Mplib has always an implicit -8bit. Everything is passed on
>         as-is, except that for the terminal and log, it will print
>         characters in the control range (0--31) and DEL (127) in ^^
>         notation. So I do not think we need those switches back.

also ok, fits well in the new tex engines approach too (xetex and luatex 
are 8 bit by design too)

> [-no]-parse-first-line
> 
>         This is currently always on.

probably harmless

> [-no]-file-line-error
> -halt-on-error
> -output-directory=DIR
> -recorder
> 
>         I have no idea what to do about these.

maybe output-directory makes sense (it might be used) but things like 
recorder ... leave it out

> The new mpost ignores unknown options, so none of the above will
> generate errors, but that may not be a good thing.

ignoring unknown keys is fine (maybe a message) but no abort

> I am sending this to texlive as well as mp-implementors.

Hans

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                                           Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
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