[fptex] fptex 0.7 - is \write18 working properly?

[LUK ShunTim]

Heiko Oberdiek wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 15, 2003 at 05:56:47PM +0800, LUK ShunTim wrote:
> 
> 
>>[...]
>>Enabling it in config.ps still won't work. Same error. My knowledge of 
>>TeX is limited but it appears that the error is caused by tex trying to 
>>create the file test.bb so that the BoundingBox information becomes 
>>available when the dvi file is being created.
> 
> 
> The error was:
> ! LaTeX Error: Cannot determine size of graphic in test.bb (no BoundingBox).
> 
> You have to provide the file test.bb, so that the graphics driver
> dvips.def is informed about the dimensions of the graphics.

Heiko and Fabrice,

Thanks very much. My memory is now refreshed. Yes, the bounding box 
information has to be *manually* generated; and I learnt more a bit more 
about TeX.

> Of course, the graphics driver dvips.def could be extended to call
> an external program to generate the .bb file on the fly, if it is
> missing. Then this call would be made by TeX and the \write18
> feature has to be enabled. (I would prefer the more powerful
> "make" for this kind of job, then .bb files are updated
> automatically, if the corresponding .jpg file changes.)

What I (mis-)thought was TeX can generate the .bb file on-the-fly. I 
think converting a jpeg (or whatever) file into eps and include it in 
the standard way would require less effort (without the need to extract 
the bounding box) if you are using a makefile to do it.

> 
> Yours sincerely
>   Heiko <oberdiek at uni-freiburg.de>

Regards and thanks again,
ST