[Fwd: PSTricks and ConTeXt]

[Tobias Burnus]

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Hi all,

> >>>>> "Richard.Hensh" == Richard Hensh <hensh at math.msu.edu> writes:
>     Richard.Hensh> Is it possible to use PSTricks with ConTeXt? I doubt it but it's worth a
>     Richard.Hensh> shot.
>   I think that nobody try it and in any case I never saw any information on
> such experiments (I suggest some months ago to an experienced PSTricks user
> to try it, but she didn't).
Well since PPCHTeX can be used with PSTricks-backend (besides PiCTeX-
and MetaPost-backend), I'm sure that it works. (Hans Hagen could surely
say more.)

I never tried to use PSTricks (and I probably won't because it doesn't
work with PDFTeX), but I think you only need:

\usemodule[pstric] % similar to \usepackage in LaTeX, loads m-pstric.tex

Tobias

PS: Thanks for Rolf for forwarding, the quote is that long, in order
that Hans can follow the thread.

>   Nevertheless, my personal feeling was rather positive, just because PSTricks
> and ConTeXt are both "only" (in this special meaning...) two generic macro
> packages built above plain. And as I found the question interesting, I just
> make one hour experiment mylself (I only read various documentations on
> ConTeXt in the past and never use it before. I do not plan to do it personaly
> in the future, because I have too many backends on LaTeX, because I do not
> want to restart from scratch and because I think it would require a lot of
> efforts to format some really complex documents I use in my professional work,
> but I found some big advantages to ConTeXt: a convenient and coherent
> interface, a more centralized development which can avoid for a part the
> incompatibilities between modules and the plurality of solutions for the same
> goals, etc. - but please do not start here a discussion on the characteristics
> of the various TeX formats available, which is not our topic here!)
> 
>   I make my tests with a teTeX installation. First I update the ConTeXt
> installation with the last one available (in CTAN/macros/context) which is
> ver: 2000.3.27, not forgetting to update the database by a texhash command.
> Second I build a format, adding in fmtutil.cnf a line:
> 
> cont-en         etex             cont-usr.tex   cont-en.ini
> 
> (obviously, we can't use pdfetex as engine, as proposed, because this one will
> not support the PSTricks \special's).
> 
>   Third I make the format using the command:
> 
> fmtutil --byfmt cont-en --dolinks
> 
>   Then I build a ConTeXt file which include some PSTricks drawings (I test a
> basic one and another more complex one for a tree), compiling them with the
> command:
> 
> texexec --format cont-en --tex etex t-pst.tex
> 
>   Globally, and without testing more, it work correctly, with the following
> restrictions:
> 
>     - there is an incompatibility between C and P concerning the usage of the
> | character in macro names. So, I just poorly hack pstricks.tex to comment all
> the macro names using the | character:
> 
> \@namedef{psas@|}{\psk at tbarsize \tx at Tbar}
> ...
> \@namedef{psds@|}{%
> ...
> \newpsfontdot{|}%
> ...
> 
>     - obviously, we must use the plain syntax for all the PSTricks macros,
> 
>     - not surprisingly, as this was basically the same problem with LaTeX
> (solved by the `pstcol' package from David Carlisle), there is an
> incompatibility between the color management models of C and P, so the colors
> used in the PSTricks macros must be defined in the PSTricks way.
> 
>   If ever you (or somebody else) are interested to test it more and to found
> clean workarounds to the small incompatibilities I notice, it could be an
> interesting thing for the future.
> 
> D.G.

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