Contents of Extracting the archive

Extracting the archive

This `` ${\manual META}$ ${\manual FONT}$ user's kit'' is a self-contained system; everything you need for the creation of beautiful fonts for TEX is here. This subsection describes the various subdirectories and their contents. Normally this package should come in the form of an LHA archive. It will contain a working installation of all programs and scripts, except that some environmental settings have to be installed by hand. Sorry, there is no `Installer' script, but installation is really very easy. First you have to extract the files by the command

   > LHa x MetaFont[.lha] <path or device for installation>

(You should have the LHa program to do this. If you don't, look for Fish Library Disk 715 for the current version.¹) A root directory MetaFont will be created and will contain the complete archive in convenient subdirectories described below. You should ``assign'' the name ``MF:'' to this root directory. Less than 3 ${\mc MB}$ of free disk space are needed to install the complete ${\manual META}$ ${\manual FONT}$ system.

MetaFont/bases: This directory is the home of the `base' files that ${\manual META}$ ${\manual FONT}$ reads at high speed at the beginning of a run. Here you will find the file plain.mf (version 2.71) and some startup files for `plain' and `cm.' New base files should be created or copied herein. The environment variable MFBASES should contain an entry pointing to this directory in order that ${\manual META}$ ${\manual FONT}$ can find them. (See section

for details about the environment variables recognized by ${\manual META}$ ${\manual FONT}$ .)

MetaFont/bin: The most important part of this package are the binary files of the programs for ${\manual META}$ ${\manual FONT}$ and the associated utilities. You should tell the operating system to look for the programs here by adding the installation path to the PATH environment variable. A more detailed description about running the programs will be given in the next section

MetaFont/config: The present implementation of ${\manual META}$ ${\manual FONT}$ is capable of resetting the memory configuration on startup in case the inner settings are too meager for a given task and ${\manual META}$ ${\manual FONT}$ aborts its run with the error message METAFONT capacity exceeded, sorry... The configuration setup file mfmemory.config contains lines of the form

   set memmax             65530     % default 30000
   set screenheight         200     % default  1024
   set <internal size> <user value> % default <value>

You may change the settings (in decent ranges!) or delete some lines from the file, thus resetting to internal values (given in the `default' column). The environment variable MFCONFIG should contain an entry that points to this directory. (See section

for details about the environment variables recognized by ${\manual META}$ ${\manual FONT}$ and section

for details about the memory configuration.) The file modes contains a list of settings appropriate for the ready-to-work base file provided with this user's kit². Several printers and the standard previewer are supported. You may change things here according to your personal configuration.

MetaFont/doc: At least this directory you have already visited if you are reading this file. Here you find the documentation for ${\manual META}$ ${\manual FONT}$ 2.71 in both German and English. The L^ATEX source files must be present, the dvi-output may have been deleted due to space limitations, but you can recreate it with a running TEX installation; no special macros or unusual fonts are necessary for this file.

MetaFont/inputs: This directory is for ${\manual META}$ ${\manual FONT}$ programmers and system administrators only. It contains text files necessary for the creation of new or changed base files and the complete Computer Modern font family, the standard for most TEX users. You may add your own font programs here. ${\manual META}$ ${\manual FONT}$ will find them when the environment variable MFINPUTS has an entry for this directory. (See section

for details about the environment variables recognized by ${\manual META}$ ${\manual FONT}$ .)

MetaFont/pool: ${\manual META}$ ${\manual FONT}$ (as well as TEX) is a ${\smallcaps Pas\-cal}$ program, so it has to use a special method of string handling due to restrictions implied by this programming language. The `pool' file mf.pool contains all texts and messages ${\manual META}$ ${\manual FONT}$ is willing to print to your screen or the log file. It was automatically generated by TANGLE in the process of compilation and should not be deleted or changed in any way.

MetaFont/rexx: This directory contains the public domain package `Call ${\mc MF}$ ' (version 1.0), consisting of three ARexx scripts by Georg Heßmann, Martin Bokämper, Jörg Höhle, and Ulrich Wisser. It is very useful in connection with Heßmann's PasTEX. Both the previewer and the printer driver refer to `Call ${\mc MF}$ ' in case a font is missing at a certain size. The ARexx scripts will create the missing fonts automatically or in batch mode. You will find a documentation of `Call ${\mc MF}$ ' [1] in a subdirectory of rexx, so no more information about installation and usage of `Call ${\mc MF}$ ' is given at this place. Just a word about possible incompatibilities. In this distribution I use only modes from the standard distribution modes.mf, PasTEX relies on pastex-modes.mf. Unfortunately the naming convention in these two files is different, so some manual adjustment will be necessary.