[metapost] shipout filenames

[Taco Hoekwater]

Larry Siebenmann wrote:
> 
> Could someone suggest how to *name* an output file
> as one pleases for a "shipout" operation?

Hello all,

If you are not pleased with <jobname>.<number> nor <jobname>.ps,
you are (currently) out of luck as far as the metapost executable
is concerned. There is simply no way to name files from within
the language.

I agree these defaults are strange, and I think there is a
feature request item for this, but I must admit that it does not
have a very high priority on my personal todo list.

I am not very familiar with the Mac, but I assume you can write
out some magic text using "special" to print the intended name
into the output file, and then use a wrapper script to rename 
automatically rename it to the included desired name.

I hope this information helps,

Taco