[metapost] MetaPost - terminally ill or just playingdead?

[Laurence Finston]

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>  Is it due to the deficiencies of metapost
> as a platform

I don't think of MetaPost as a platform.  It is, among other things, an
excellent interface to PostScript.  For this reason, I don't see any reason to
implement PostScript support in 3DLDF.  If I want JPEG, or PNG, or PNM, I use
ImageMagick or GIMP.  MP is very suitable for use in a "graphics pipeline".

The main thing I've always liked about MF/MP is the language.  Having made a
close study of the syntax while writing the GNU Bison parser for 3DLDF, I like
it even more.  MP is rather limited in its data types for geometrical shapes,
but this doesn't affect me.  I can implement whatever I want in 3DLDF.

In short, I see no reason to migrate anywhere.  I can't compete with Autocad,
3D Studio, Maya, or similar packages.  Like I always say, if I was the richest
man in the world, my software would be plug-and-play, too. 

My primary interest with respect to computer graphics is in finding the
intersections of algebraic curves and surfaces.  This is a topic that isn't
discussed much in computer graphics books.  I don't know anybody else that's
interested in it.  I wish it were otherwise, but that's the way it is.

Laurence