[metapost] MPlib beta 1.085

[Taco Hoekwater]

Hi all,

I have just released the archive files for MPlib beta 1.085.

At the moment, the archives contain only the mpost program sources
and executables. The final release will of course also contain the
MetaPost 'base' texmf support files and the already existing manuals
as well as a new manual documenting the C API of the library.

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What is new in this beta release:

* Determination of the mem name to use in non-ini mode is now much
   closer to the web2c approach.

* There is now a magic word in the beginning of the mem file to make
   sure it is written by the correct version of MPlib.

* Fixed the disappearing comment sign in the to-be-typeset document
   created by the mpx generation subsystem.

* Various identifiers have been renamed to avoid clashes (that prevented
   the source from building correctly on many platforms)

* A great many small changes and fixes have been added after running
   splint on the generated C source.

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For those of you who are not aware of the project yet:

MPlib is the name of the new, revamped version of the MetaPost
interpreter. It is implemented in Cweb, and internally consists
of a core library, an mpx generation library, and a frontend
driver program (mpost).

The new mpx generation library includes the label generation
functionality that was previously provided by 'makempx', and
this internal code will be used instead of that external program
unless the MPXCOMMAND variable is set in the  environment or
texmf.cnf.

The programs 'makempx', 'newer', 'mpto', 'dvitomp' and 'dmp' are
obsolete and are no longer included in the distribution.

The MPlib distribution is released under the GPL version 2 or, at
your option, any later version.

This beta release of MPlib that can replace the old pascal-based
metapost interpreter completely; the executable is almost a drop-in
replacement for MetaPost 1.005. The commandline is slightly
different and you have to regenerate the mem files, but that
should be the only user-visible change.

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The TODO list before the official announcement at TUG2008 in Cork
now only has two items left:

* Writing the documentation for the C API
* Bughunting

I'll be working on the first item myself, but for the second item
I really have to ask all of you for help: please test mplib on as
many files as you can find. Because there has been so much work
done on the source code (including the conversion from pascal web
to C web), bugs are likely.

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You can get the sources and a cross-compiled mingw binary for Win32
from the usual place:

    http://foundry.supelec.fr/frs/?group_id=13&release_id=308

Best wishes,
Taco