[tex-live] dvipos build fails

[Sanjoy Mahajan]

>> the build dies in dvipos
>
> Why aren't I surprised.

The egg is on my face not Karl's.  dvipos's only user is ConTeXt, I
believe, and I urged Karl to include dvipos so that ConTeXt in dvi
mode works with positional graphics.

I gave him the CTAN version with my few fixes (so that it wrote out
dimensions with units), but I didn't think about a configure script or
realize that the include files wouldn't be found.  My Ubuntu (i386)
build found the kpathsea.h on the main system:

  $ dpkg -S kpathsea.h
  libkpathsea-dev: /usr/include/kpathsea/kpathsea.h

Therefore, if dvipos builds without problems, could you try the
following ConTeXt test file on a handy architecture to ensure that I
wasn't smoking dope about needing dvipos (with the patches).  The
tests to try are after the file.

================ file.tex ==========================================
\defineoverlay [foregraphics] [\positionoverlay{foregraphics}]
\setupbackgrounds
  [page]
  [background={foreground,foregraphics}]

\starttext

\hpos{r23}{7} \quad \hpos{r24}{8} 

\startMPpositiongraphic{mypos:line}
  mpprocset := 0;  % context doesn't yet handle the new mpprocsets
  path pa, pb, pab ; numeric na, nb ;
  initialize_box(\MPpos{\MPvar{from}}) ;
  na := nxy ; pa := llxy..lrxy..urxy..ulxy..cycle ;
  initialize_box(\MPpos{\MPvar{to}}) ;
  nb := nxy ; pb := llxy..lrxy..urxy..ulxy..cycle ;
  if na=nb :
    pab := center pa -- center pb ;
    pab := pab cutbefore (pab intersectionpoint pa) ;
    pab := pab cutafter (pab intersectionpoint pb) ;
    pickup pencircle;
    draw pab;
    anchor_box(\MPanchor{\MPvar{from}}) ;
  fi ;
\stopMPpositiongraphic

\startpositionoverlay{foregraphics}
  \setMPpositiongraphic{r23}{mypos:line}{to=r24}
\stoppositionoverlay

The pattern.

\stoptext
============================================================

Try these two tests without dvipos (e.g. "mv `which dvipos`{,.tmp}" if
your shell handles curly braces, and ditto for any other copies that
may get unshadowed):

  $ texexec file.tex 
  // file.pdf (correctly) shows a line between the '7' and the '8'.

and (but remove the many auxilliary files first):

  $ texexec --dvi file.tex
  // file.ps (from file.dvi) doesn't have the line between the '7' and the '8'

Then retry the above (again after removing the auxilliary files) after
restoring dvipos:

  $ texexec --dvi file.tex
  // file.ps should have the line between the '7' and '8'

Many thanks,
-Sanjoy

`Not all those who wander are lost.' (J.R.R. Tolkien)