[metapost] file naming question.

[Dan Luecking]

At 08:46 AM 1/20/2010, you wrote:
[Oops, forgot to hit reply-all. Here's what I wrote to Taco:]
>Hi,
>
>Walt Burkhard wrote:
>>I have used MetaPost for many years.   I notice a change in how .mp 
>>files are created.
>>old version:      mpost data.out   creates   data.0  data.1 data.2 etc...
>>new version:    mpost data.out    creates  data.out.0 data.out.1 
>>data.out.2 etc ...
>
>>Is there any outputtemplate to continue the "old" naming convention?
>
>Unless you count
>
>   outputtemplate := "data.%c";
>
>or trickery with substrings of jobname as a valid solution, no.
>
>I am in two minds about the new behaviour: on the one hand it is
>backward incompatible, on the other hand you *did* name the file
>data.out, and I am not a fan of all the automatic black magic
>that always goes on with file extensions in tex/mf/mp.

The behavior in TeX is rather simple and has been stable
for some time in the systems I use (TeX Live), namely
\jobname is the filename without its last extension (if
there is any).

I don't see why all programs with a jobname capability can't
do the same: follow tex's rules.

There is precedent: On the search side, tex searches for the
file.name.tex and then for file.name (at least in TL2009).
We had a discussion here about the search rules for mpost
and came to a consensus that it be essentially the same as
tex's: file.name.mp and then file.name.

As a work-around, surely
   mpost --jobname=data data.out
still works?


Dan

Daniel H. Luecking
Department of Mathematical Sciences
1 University of Arkansas
Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701