%%% File: readme.1st %%% A part of mfpic 0.6 2002/09/12 %%% %% All files of the mfpic distribution (listed in manifest.txt) may be %% distributed and/or modified under the conditions of the LaTeX Project %% Public License, either version 1.2 of this license or (at your %% option) any later version. The latest version of this license is in %% http://www.latex-project.org/lppl.txt and version 1.2 or later is %% part of all distributions of LaTeX version 1999/12/01 or later. This is mfpic 0.6 beta, uploaded to CTAN on 2002/09/12. All versions 0.5X, where X is either a decimal .01 through .07 or a letter (0.5.07 was renumberd 0.5g and then the letter indicated the patch level) are alpha test versions. Version 0.5.01b, (on my web site, see end of this file) is a bugfix version of 0.5.0. The previous CTAN version was 0.5 and was placed on CTAN in the fall of 2001 and 0.4 was released in 2000. The version prior to that, on CTAN since 1996, was 0.2.10.9. It was labelled an alpha test, though it became the de facto standard. It and later versions are not backward compatible with versions prior to that, which are no longer officially supported. MFpic defines a command group \mfpic...\endmfpic (optionally in LaTeX an environment mfpic) and drawing commands to be used inside this group. When TeX (or LaTeX) is run on a file containing those commands, a Metafont or MetaPost source file is created. When that file is correctly processed by Metafont (or MetaPost), and LaTeX or TeX is run again, the result is a figure in the TeX document in the location of the environment. See instruct.txt for initial setup and brief instructions for experienced users. See whats.new for a summary of features added since the previous official release (0.4 beta). See docs/mfpicdoc.tex and docs/mppicdoc.tex for more detailed instructions and descriptions of new features. To obtain the printed documentation, have the files mfpicdoc.tex, mppicdoc.tex, header.tex, indexing.tex and mfpicdoc.ind in the current directory, or where TeX can find them, and run (plain) tex: tex mfpicdic and tex mppicdoc All the *.tex files in the docs directory require the macro file header.tex Examples of mfpic use appear in Alan Hoenig's "TeX Unbound" and in "The LaTeX Graphics Companion". The latter describes a version at least compatible with the previous CTAN version (0.2.10.9). The former, while generally correct and useful in its description, describes an earlier version, before certain commands were renamed. See unbound.tex in this distribution for an update of that information. See manifest.txt for an explanation of the purpose of the other files in the distribution. In particular, read it *before* trying to process any of the example/test files, since it explains what must be done to process them correctly. MFpic was initiated by Tom Leathrum in 1992. At some point in version 0.2.x most of the development passed to Geoffrey Tobin. In 1996, when the (unreleased) version was at 0.2.14, I began trying to transform mfpic's Metafont code (in grafbase.mf) into MetaPost code, and then folding MetaPost support into mfpic.tex. With Geoffrey's help, and that of a small group of mfpic aficionados on the net, we now have version 0.6. This distribution, and the latest updates, should also be available at my web site: . -- Dan Luecking email: Department of Mathematical Sciences University of Arkansas Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701-1201 U.S.A.