[tex-k] header special extension proposal

[Hendri Adriaens]

Paul,

> I don't understand.  Why can't you just put your "pre code" and
> "post code"
> into the header file?

The main application of this extension, as said in the background, is to
include graphics into the ps setup section with some code around it to nest
the graphic in an object. This means that we don't want to ask the user to
modify the graphic to include this extra code. That's far too cumbersome for
the user and too risky (non-unique variable names etc).

If we want to automate this with the current dvips, we arrive at either of
the 3 `solutions' which all have severe drawbacks/impossibilities. A simple
extension of the header special could bring the solution here.

I have build `solutions' 2 and 3 to test them and then found the problems
mentioned earlier. I even prepared a package, ready for CTAN, which has
`solution' 2, when I found out about the line breaking problem. I could send
you a version of that as proof of concept, but it's not supposed to be
distributed as it doesn't work for all graphics (line breaks!).

-Hendri.