$Id: README,v 1.5 2005/03/19 22:52:45 karl Exp $
This file is public domain.

MetaPost is a system for producing graphics developed by John Hobby at
AT&T, based on Donald Knuth's Metafont.  The MetaPost home page is
http://tug.org/metapost.

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The following AT&T software is hereby put into the public domain:

    The MetaPost system, including the interpreter, mp,
    and support programs mpto, dvitomp and dmp

This does not constitute a precedent to be applied to any other AT&T
copyright software.

AT&T relinquishes all intellectual property rights to this code, both
source and binary form and permission is granted for anyone to use,
duplicate, modify and redistribute it.

AT&T provides absolutely NO WARRENTEE OF ANY KIND with respect to this
software.  The entire risk as to the quality and performance of this
software is with the
user.

IN NO EVENT WILL AT&T BE LIABLE TO ANYONE FOR ANY DAMAGES
ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, INCLUDING, WITHOUT
LIMITATION, DAMAGES RESULTING FROM LOST DATA OR LOST PROFITS,
OR FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES.

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This file merely describes this packaging of the MetaPost system.
See ./INSTALL for some installation help, and ./CHANGES for recent
and not-so-recent improvements to MetaPost.

The source installation package has been created by extracting the
bits and pieces of TeX Live 2004 that are absolutely needed to compile
the programs in such a way that they can be plugged into an existing
web2c-based installation afterwards. It follows, that for a succesful
build, your system has to be able to compile and install a web2c based
distribution like tetex or TeX Live. See http://tug.org/texlive/ for more
information.

Some support is required in a dvi-to-PostScript program in order to
take full advantage of MetaPost's ability to include typeset text in
figures.  Rokicki's dvips is one of the few drivers that has this
support; it is available from www.ctan.org and/or other standard sites
as well as being included in most common TeX distributions. 

When using pdftex, that same functionality is provided by the mptopdf
TeX macros by Hans Hagen that convert MetaPost output to PDF primitives
on the fly. These macros are part of his ConTeXt format, which is also 
usually included in your TeX distribution. More information on ConTeXt
can be obtained from www.pragma-ade.com. 

The main source files for MetaPost are located in src/texk/web2c;
auxiliary programs that process included TeX commands are contained in
the subdirectory src/texk/web2c/mpware; standard macro files and such
are distributed below the top-level ./texmf directory. The manual and
some other documentation is under ./manual. Optional troff files are
in ./troff.

The executable that is created by the build process is named mpost. As
is normal in current web2c systems, this executable functions as both
inimp and virmp by means of a command-line switch.

When mpost is processing an input file that contains TeX commands, it
depends on a shell script (mpware/makempx) to create an auxiliary
input file that gives corresponding MetaPost picture expressions.
This script uses mpware/mpto to create TeX (or troff) input and uses
the program dvitomp (for TeX) or mpware/dmp (for troff) to postprocess
the output.

The dmp translator reads data files ./troff/trfonts.map and
./troff/trchar.adj. The former handles the translation between troff
names and tfm file names, while the latter gives character positioning
adjustments.  There is also a directory ./troff/charlib containing
MetaPost programs for characters used in troff and not appearing in
standard PostScript fonts.

Like its ancestor METAFONT, MetaPost is written in the web language.
Anyone who is not familiar with the mechanics of web programs should
see the documentation that comes with his/her TeX distribution.  The
distribution contains a directory called "web2c" with Tim Morgan's
programs for automatically translating web programs into C.  It is a
good idea to look at the documentation for web2c before installing
MetaPost.

The ultimate source for MetaPost is mp/mp.web.  System-dependent
changes go in mp/mp.ch, and there may be extra .ch files if you have
donwloaded a pretest or beta release. These are basically diff files
where changes are denoted
                   @x <old text> @y <new text> @z

Bug reports and feature requests are welcome, but should be sent to
the developement & maintenance team instead of the author.

  Original author:         John D Hobby  <hobby@research.bell-labs.com>
  Maintainers/Bug address: MP Development Team <metapost@tug.org>

Have fun!
