<html><head><style type='text/css'>p { margin: 0; }</style></head><body><div style='font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000'><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">I have a bunch of files that used to run without error a few years ago when "verbatimtex" was operative. I wanted to use those files again, but they don't compile anymore. I eventually tracked down the problem to metapost's seeming inability to simply place a letter at a given point. The code shown below fails to compile, with metapost giving the same "Unable to make mpx file" error others have encountered when using "btex ... etex" in different circumstances. Whatever changes that have been made in replacing verbatimtex with TEXPRE appear to be backward incompatible. What's the work around? </font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">Here's the code (in file test.mp), followed by the error log on debian and ubuntu distributions.</font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">%========= begin metapost code ======== </font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">prologues:=3;</font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">outputtemplate:="%j-%2d.mps";</font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">input TEX;</font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">TEXPRE("%&latex" & char(10) & "\documentclass{article}\begin{document}");</font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">TEXPOST("\end{document}");</font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">beginfig(1);</font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif"> label.bot(btex $A$ etex, (60,50));</font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">endfig;</font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">end</font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">%========== end metapost code ======== </font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">=========begin metapost error log ===========</font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">[metapost]$ mpost test</font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">This is MetaPost, version 1.504 (kpathsea version 6.1.0)</font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">(mpost.mp (/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/metapost/base/plain.mp</font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">Preloading the plain mem file, version 1.004)) (./test.mp</font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/metapost/base/TEX.mp)fatal: Command failed: latex</font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif"> --parse-first-line --interaction=nonstopmode mpRWGT5V.tex; see mpxerr.log</font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">>> test.mp</font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">>> test.mpx</font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">! Unable to make mpx file.</font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">l.7 label.bot(btex</font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif"> $A$ etex, (60,50));</font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">Transcript written on test.log.</font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">[metapost]$</font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">========= end metapost error log ========</font></div></div></body></html>