[metapost] Does MetaPost catch on?

[Reinhard Kotucha]

On 2 September 2010 Stephan Hennig wrote:

 > Am 02.09.2010 16:25, schrieb Hans Hagen:
 > > On 2-9-2010 3:25, Stephan Hennig wrote:
 > >>
 > >> for OTF fonts, that probably wouldn't include mathematics. So again, a
 > >> full TeX installation were needed. Too bad.
 > >
 > > well, mp is not tex and meant for simple graphics; if you want the
 > > fullpower of tex (and typesetting) you need to look at other tools
 > 
 > The problem is, MetaPost is for technical graphics, but those in turn 
 > often call for mathematical typesetting.  Just think about graphs ...  A 
 > troff + MetaPost bundle would fill the gap.  But this is all 
 > theoretical, since, personally, I'm fine with TeX.  I just wonder if 
 > such a bundle could bring more people to MetaPost.

I'm wondering how many people can be convinced to learn troff.

 > > or follow the reverse approach: use mp inside tex which is what
 > > mplib is for
 > 
 > Yeah, but what typesetting system are you suggesting that is portable 
 > and easy to learn?

TeX.  You need a system which people are familiar with.  What do
non-TeX-users do with the graphics then?  Convert them to jpeg in
order to use them in Word documents?

I don't believe that there are many people who don't use TeX but are
willing to learn metapost or troff.

Before you invest more time you can ask the Asymptote guys how many
people already use Asymptote for anything else (except SVG for output)
but including the graphics into TeX documents.

Regards,
  Reinhard

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