[metapost] format.mp and mptopdf

[h h extern]

Stephan Hennig wrote:
> Taco Hoekwater schrieb:
> 
> 
>>I think you misinterpreted the mptopdf command. It does not
>>(normally) run mpost for you, you have to do that before you
>>call mptopdf.^
> 
> 
> Yes, I read this before somewhere, but I have to admit I've never
> understood the mechanism with mptopdf in detail. Is there some
> documentation about which files are generated at which intermediate
> step, where and why? I've seen some .mpx, .mpo, mptrace.tmp or texput
> files and I know some more temporary files are stored somewhere else.
> But who is who?

mptopdf is two things:

- a tex format that can be applied to a metapost file
- a perl script wrapper that calls mpost of metafun beforehand

so, what you're observing is a metafun run (in this case mptopdf, the perl 
script, calls texexec); if you say "mptopdf --raw somefile.mp" you will get a 
normal mpost run

the benefit of metafun is that you can have other colors spaces (cmyk, spot, 
transparencies), shading, graphic inclusions and some more;

concerning that graph package, in the case of metafun, don't load it, since 
there i use a patched version (more efficient, and optionally a higher quality)

so, in your case, you may want to follow taco's suggestion: run mp yourself and 
only use mptopdf to process the result "mptopdf somefile.1"

(there is a small mptopdf manual)

Hans


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