[XeTeX] Using MetaPost together with XeTeX

[Evgenie Medvedev]

Mojca Miklavec wrote:

> What exactly would you like to know?

	Something that would let me voodoo through this, since I've no
intention to learn ConTeXt right now. I might in the future, but at the
moment, I've started doing it with LaTeX and would rather finish first.

> - I have written preliminary support for TikZ terminal in Gnuplot. If
> you have enough nerves and time to compile gnuplot by yourself, to
> test it and help to improve it, I'll be glad to implement new feature
> requests.

	I have since found a driver for gnuplot which generates TikZ code:
http://tapas.affenbande.org/wordpress/?p=75
	It actually works, (the only thing not working are patterns, and  PGF
complains it's xdvipdfmx's fault) but after fiddling too much with
gnuplot I ended up deciding it's easier to get R to draw what I want
instead and avoid gnuplot entirely.

> What exactly is wrong with the example that you posted to the list?
> What prevents you from using ConTeXt for generating PDFs and include
> the resulting images into LaTeX document?

	Nothing, except that when I try to insert my own MetaPost code that
uses MetaPost support packages into it, where I expect it should be,
without understanding where ConTeXt wants it to be, it stops working and
complains. If I had an empty commented 'template' or something, I could
well use it like you describe.

> PicTeX "driver" has only 800 lines of C code, and PS "driver" 7100
> lines. Starting from PicTeX driver doesn't sound undoable, if anyone
> who needs it decides to do it.

	I would, if I was that deep into R. There's a little bit too much
programming in my life for someone in social sciences, I'm trying to cut
down on that. :)
	I'm investigating whether I can write a better Xfig->TikZ converter
now, though, since quite a few programs can generate Xfig. If I can make
something which generates code that is more readable and hackable, and
supports more Xfig features, it would do just fine for any charts I can
imagine myself wishing to see -- I'm not adverse to fiddling with TikZ
output if it lets me make it prettier and more descriptive.

-- 
Evgenie Medvedev