[metapost] Re: pdf output and extensions

[Boguslaw Jackowski]

Larry:
> Alternatives are  "leftoffsetpath" and "rightoffsetpath",
> terms I have spotted in the literature.

For me, it's OK.

> As for "well-defined", there is a quandry at cusps on the
> path (as at the top of handwritten dotless i). 
[...]
> So the "well-definition" difficulties here are artifacts of
> the path technology.

But you agree, that a human being is able to find a continuous one-hand 
envelope, at least in most of practical cases. If so, there must have been 
an algorithmic approach...

I hope that the bitmap machinery working behind the scene, (implanting
METAFONT bitmap machinery, i.e., so called ``edge structure'', into MP is
currently under consideration) can be helpful in such cases; namely, it can
help to determine (within a given accuracy) whether the interior lies to the
left or to the right of the path being traversed. If we assume that the
interior should be kept always at the same side during the traversing of 
a path, the ambiguity of the turning direction at cusps can be overcome.

-- Jacko

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