[metapost] MetaPost 0.992 and %&latex

[Karl Berry]

    latex.fmt is written by pdfetex these days, right? 

Right.  But also these days, etex and pdfetex are the same program so
presumably "etex" (the pdfetex binary) can read latex.fmt.  I just tried
it; worked fine.

    when using the %& trick, 

Right, with %& it doesn't matter.  But is %& always used, necessarily?

I only bring this stuff up because I wonder if I should set TEX in the
TeX Live texmf.cnf, following your suggestion, and perhaps avoid some
user hassles.  And if so, what it should be.  Seems like "etex" might be
safer, with no downside that I can see?

Thanks,
k