[metapost] [bug] documentation of length operator

[Stephan Hennig]

Sorry for the delayed response.  I've had a subtle hardware failure
that kept me busy identifying.


Dan Luecking schrieb:

>>length operator is perfectly happy operating on strings:
>
> The metapost and metafont language are the same. The reference
> manual for the metapost language is Knuth's "MetafontBook".

Ok, fell into that trap again.  But ...


> The file mpman is really a "Not so Short Introduction to Metapost".
> I haven't read them lately, but mpman or mpintro used to say as much.

on the other hand, I think, mpman should advertise as such more cleary
in the abstract. Currently, it doesn't really point out that
"The METAFONTbook" is the true MetaPost reference:


 This document serves as an introductory user’s manual. It does not
 require knowledge of METAFONT or access to The METAFONTbook, but
 both are beneficial. An appendix explains the differences between
 MetaPost and METAFONT.

could be changed to:

 This document serves as an introductory user’s manual. It does not
 require knowledge of METAFONT or access to The METAFONTbook, but
+since this is not a full METAFONT/MetaPost reference manual,
 both are beneficial. An appendix explains the differences between
 MetaPost and METAFONT.

Possibly emphasizing the word "not".

But even if mpman is not a full MetaPost reference "length <string>"
should be added at least to table 7 (or 8 in the upcoming version),
since there is no point in an incomplete list of operators (that
suggests by its length alone that it's complete).  IMHO, either it is
complete or it should be completely left out.  Declaring it broken by
design is no satisfying solution.

Best regards,
Stephan Hennig