[tex-live] Different versions of epstopdf?

[George N. White III]

On 4/30/07, Gerben Wierda <Gerben.Wierda at rna.nl> wrote:

> Begin forwarded message:
>
> >> What is going on? I think that I am using this: /usr/local/texlive/
> >> 2007/bin/powerpc-darwin/epstopdf Isn't that the one that is
> >> described at http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/support/epstopdf/ ?
>
> Should the perl version of epstopdf in TL be retired in favour of the
> c-coded version? What speaks against it is that it requires a
> Ghostscript which is not part of TL. If a gs-independent epstopdf has
> a role apart from a gs-dependent one, it is unfortunate that the c-
> coded version has the same name.

Both require Ghostscript.  Which version should be used depends largely
on whether anyone is going to maintain the code.   Gerben has been
maintaining the perl code.  I think the flexibilty of perl is an advantage
for this sort of tool -- you can quickly create a version with a workaround
for a problem in some batch of EPS files (e.g., to correct SigmaPlot's
incorrect handling of parentheses in EPS strings) and it will be available
immediately to all platforms.

Both perl and ghostscript are essential to TeX Live, so it makes little
practical difference if one utility is replaced by a version that
doesn't require
one or both of those tools.

-- 
George N. White III <aa056 at chebucto.ns.ca>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia