[comp.text] Metafont

opergb@emily.uvm.edu (Gary Bushey) (08/07/89)

I have been hearing about METAFONT and was wondering where it was possible
to get it.


Gary Bushey
opergb@uvm-gen.uvm.edu

dhosek@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (D.A. Hosek) (12/11/89)

In article <33143@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> othar@ernie.Berkeley.EDU (Othar Hansson) writes:
>- as 'undump' isn't available on the DEC, I can't make 'mf', but only
>'inimf'.  Can any Metafont users out there explain to me how to translate
>the commands in MakeTeXPK to use inimf rather than mf?
>
>The command looks something like:
>
>  mf "\mode:=$MODE; mag:=$MAG; batchmode; input $FONTNAME"
>
>and I'd like to use something like 'inimf &plain' instead (I think).

All you need to do is change the line to read

  inimf "&plain \mode:=$MODE; ..."

as you thought you would.

Incidentally, Knuth himself no longer uses anything other than initex
and inimf. He has some mods so that the executables check to see what
name they were called under and preload the base file accordingly.

Also, the use of preloaded executables (in the literal sense) has 
fallen into disuse; with few exceptions, it is faster and easier to
load the base file than to generate the executable using undump (or
some such monster). Also, since the pre-loaded executables take up
a fair amount of disk space, there is that advantage as well. The 
only system, it seems, where it makes sense to continue to bother
with preloading is something really small like an AT class PC, and 
even there, its utility is doubtful.

-dh
-- 
"Odi et amo, quare id faciam, fortasse requiris?
   nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior"          -Catullus
D.A. Hosek.                        UUCP: uunet!jarthur!dhosek
                               Internet: dhosek@hmcvax.claremont.edu