[pdftex] Re: texconfig

[Thomas Esser]

> One remark: choosing a mode for pdftex only sets the resolution, not an 
> actual mode. As a result, suppose I have a dvips mode of nexthi (this is 
> the mode I am actually using to print locally) and a pdftex mode of 
> ljfour (or 600) because that is what most people have. mktexpk will 
> complain when pdftex starts creating missing fonts as bitmaps, because 
> nexthi is not 600dpi.
> 
> maketexpk complains, but why should it? Has that something to do with 
> the metafont base that is nexthi on my system?

pdftex has no means to accept a mode and pass it to mktexpk, so mktexpk
will first try its default mode. If that does not match the bdpi,
it falls back to a list of fallback modes with the right bdpi. This
only works for a few resolutions:

  if test -z "$MODE" || test "x$MODE" = xdefault; then
    case "$BDPI" in
      85) MODE=sun;;
     100) MODE=nextscrn;;
     180) MODE=toshiba;;
     300) MODE=cx;;
     400) MODE=nexthi;;
     600) MODE=ljfour;;
    1270) MODE=linoone;;
       *) echo "$progname: Can't guess mode for $BDPI dpi devices." >&2
          echo "$progname: Use a config file, or update me." >&2
          exit 1
    esac
  fi

There is no easy solution for this other than fixing pdftex, I think.
So, I hereby ask if someone wants to implement this. pdftex should not
only read pk_resolution from pdftex.cfg, but also some variable for the
metafont mode and then pass this to mktexpk (instead of "/"). Will
anybody implement this?

Thomas