[metapost] Metapost beta 1.091 release

[Laurence Finston]

Hello Taco,

Thank you for your reply.

On Wed, 30 Jul 2008, Taco Hoekwater wrote:

> Long time no see. I guess you're in now because the message got through.

Yes, I got back in, thanks.

> This is the lua mplib extension module, I should make building and
> listing that an option to the build script, that would be better.

I thought it had something to do with building shared libraries and I read 
something about libraries being linked in statically.  I haven't checked 
to see exactly what's done. 

> This is probably normal. Whether or not copying of texmf.cnf works
> depends on the actual contents of that texmf.cnf. In your case,
> it probably contained relative paths instead of absolute ones.

I tried renaming `texmf.cnf' and it no longer worked.  A long time ago, I 
did something with `texmf.cnf' files, but I don't really remember the 
details of KPATHSEA.  It was more a matter of guessing what could be 
wrong, fiddling, and hoping it worked.  Fortunately, it did.

None of these problems was really difficult to solve, although they did 
cause a certain amount of gnashing of teeth.  Of couse, you know best 
how to manage the MetaPost package, but I thought if I, i.e., a person who 
has some experience with installing packages, Unix systems, TeX and 
friends, etc., have problems, then someone who doesn't have much experience 
might be put off, which would be a shame.  

For example, is there a reason why `mpost.mem' can't be 
generated by `build.sh'?  I really only know about `INIMP' or `INIMPOST' 
because I once used `initex' and have in the past read _The TeXBook_ and 
_The METAFONTbook_ fairly thoroughly.  I hadn't used either of them in 
ages.

I had actually given up and installed the last stable version I found at 
CTAN.  When I saw that it was from 2002 or 2003 (I'd have to check to be 
sure), I decided to have another go at installing 1.091.

None of this is meant as criticism;  I know how tricky it can be setting 
up a distribution so that it can be installed on other peoples' systems 
and MetaPost does seem to be a rather complex system, having watched the 
terminal output of `build.sh'.  

Best wishes,

Laurence