[metapost] Metapost 0.99 beta released

[Taco Hoekwater]

Hi all,

I am pleased to announce that a beta version of the upcoming
MetaPost release can be downloaded from the repository:

   https://foundry.supelec.fr/frs/?group_id=13&release_id=181

There is a source distribution available, and also binary
packages for linux and win32 (cross-compiled using mingw32).

The included manual is still out of date, but a description
of the new features can be found in the 'MetaPost Developments -
autumn 2006' paper, and that can be downloaded here:

    http://tug.org/metapost/articles/

A really quick summary:

    The new functionality includes: the possibility to use a
    template for the naming of output files; support for CMYK
    and greyscale color models; per-object PostScript specials;
    the option to generate Encapsulated PostScript files
    adhering to Adobe’s Document Structuring Conventions;
    the ability to embed re-encoded and/or subsetted fonts;
    and support for the GNU implementation of troff (groff).

There is only 'version 1.0' item from the paper that is yet
missing from this beta: the fix for turningnumber (section 2.2).

On the other hand, there are two extra features:

* setting the new internal mpprocset to 1 will make MetaPost
    create a somewhat extended preamble that defines shortcuts
    for the postscript commands (e..g "l" instead of "lineto").
    For big images, this can help shrink the output a bit.

* The pool file is now integrated in the executable, so there
   is not separate 'mp.pool' anymore (it is still generated,
   but is included whosesale in the mpost executable).

This will be the version on TeXLive, so let's hope that there
are no more serious problems. The final 1.0 release will
appear somewehere next month, but that is too late for TeXLive.


Have Fun,

Taco Hoekwater
PS For L Nobre G.: Sorry, this doesn't fix your problem either.