[MiKTeX] Re: latex, YAP, makepk, mf and gftopk

[<Ger...@br...>]

mik...@li... writes:

Latex only needs the tfm files. It therefore calls metafont to generate them.
The pk files are needed in YAP or by dvips to generate the characters. These
programs call a script called makepk, which itself calls first mf to generate
the gf file, and the the program gftopk to generate the pk file. There is no
dependency which makes sure that if the mf-files have changed, the pk files
are updated. One therefore should write a script which deletes all the pk files
concerned every time when the source (the mf file) is changed.

I myself encountered some strange behaviour in makepk: 
When I generated a new version of my mf file, it was not possible to display
the result with YAP, although it worked perfectly with dvips and ghostview.
It seems that the makepk is very peculiar about warnings during the metafont
call, and will not continue with gftopk in this case. One then can force the
generation of the pk file by calling gftopk manually, renaming the resulting
file and putting it to the proper place in the font tree of the localtexmf.

>    3. feynMF - again (=?iso-8859-1?Q?V=E1nyolos_Andr=E1s?=)
> Message: 3
> From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?V=E1nyolos_Andr=E1s?= <van...@ch...>
> To: "miktex mailing list" <mik...@li...>
> Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2003 19:31:04 +0200
> Subject: [MiKTeX] feynMF - again
> Reply-To: mik...@li...
> 
> Dear miktex users,
> 
> I posted a mail to the list 2 days ago about the feynMF package.
> Then I wrote this:
> 
> >I have recently installed the feynMF package created by Thorsten Ohl, in
> >order to have Feynman-diagrams in my papers. Everything seems to work fine
> >exept one thing. When I run latex, metafont and then latex again all the
> >required files ( .mf, .tfm, .gf, and label-files) are generated in the
> >directory, where my latex source file is (I guess this is how it should
> >be...), but the most important .pk file is placed somewhere deep in the
> >localtexmf-tree, where I can hardly find it. First of all, i don't
> >understand why metafont "hides" this file, and when I change my latex
> source
> >and compile again, this .pk file doesn't get updated, while the others do.
> >Thus nothing changes in the .dvi output. The feynMF manual says, that one
> >should always delete the old .pk, then let metafont to create a new,
> updated
> >one. This is a bit annoying. Does anybody know a better, more sophisticated
> solution?
> 
> I got 2 responses:
> 
> 1. Hans Fr. Nordhaug wrote:
> > Have you tried the "-output-directory=DIR" option for metafont? That
> > should help. ....
> 
> 2. Philip G. Ratcliffe wrote:
> > you can have the files created in a subdirectory by using, e.g.,
> > \begin{fmffile}{subdir/filename}.
> 
> Unfortunately none of them helped. Thank you very much guys, anyway!
> 
> Meanwhile I realized, that it is not the METAFONT that creates the .pk file.
> When I run metafont, it generates the .tfm and .gf files from the .mf file.
> This is how it works.
> BUT when I double click on the .dvi output to take a look at it, YAP0.99a
> (the dvi processor) generates the .pk file and places it somewhere deep in
> the localtexmf-tree. And if  i make changes in the latex source, metafont
> will update the .tfm, .gf files, but the dvi processor (i have not the
> faintest idea what it is for) will not create the new .pk file, thus nothing
> will change in the .dvi output.
> 
> How can I force YAP to update the .pk files, without deleting the old one?
> Any idea?
> 
> I would appritiate any help, thanks
> Andras
> 
Gerhard Eber

Bruker Biospin GmbH		Email: ge...@br...