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Strictly, MetaPost is not Knuth's. It is a derivative of Metafont, but is different. I keep meaning to learn to use it, and keep failing. So huge shout out f

by taeric 1y ago

Strictly, MetaPost is not Knuth's. It is a derivative of Metafont, but is different. I keep meaning to learn to use it, and keep failing. So huge shout out for getting this posted! That it is a language somewhat designed to solve linear equations is something I have yet to really wrap my head around. I want to say it is far far more descriptive of what you are drawing than something like SVG. That said, I'm not clear if I could justify that claim.

Nzen 1y ago
I see that you are right. I skimmed the wikipedia article about MetaPost, and Knuth's name caught my eye more than "derived from".
dhosek 1y ago
Metapost was first released in 1989 by John Hobby in who was also effectively a coauthor of Metafont. I will say that the MF language is really kind of a delight. It has a clear influence from TeX in its macro construction, but the presence of first-class variables which TeX lacks makes it a more productive language overall. I was a bit inspired by it when I took my one and only CS class as an undergrad. One of the few homework assignments I actually turned in was supposed to be a simple calculator with 26 assignable variables (A–Z). I thought that was boring, so I let variables be of any length and turned the calculator into a linear algebra solver so if you wrote, e.g., 2X+3Y=14 X-Y=1 X Y it would give you the values for X and Y that met the constraints. I got a C on the assignment because the TA didn’t understand my code (written in CWEB and presented as a 20+ page source listing alongside the functioning executable).
- taeric 1y ago
  I keep meaning to play with both. I don't know how to structure a project around it, though. :( For fonts, I think it would be fun to basically make a tiling font where you can basically make something like a dragon tiling by just playing with the letters. And kudos on that calculator! Sounds fun. Boo on the TA for giving you a C. Presumably it could be executed. When I was a TA in college, that would go a log way to getting a better grade. My not understanding something was a problem on me, not any student.

by taeric 1y ago

Nzen 1y ago

I see that you are right. I skimmed the wikipedia article about MetaPost, and Knuth's name caught my eye more than "derived from".

dhosek 1y ago

Metapost was first released in 1989 by John Hobby in who was also effectively a coauthor of Metafont. I will say that the MF language is really kind of a delight. It has a clear influence from TeX in its macro construction, but the presence of first-class variables which TeX lacks makes it a more productive language overall. I was a bit inspired by it when I took my one and only CS class as an undergrad. One of the few homework assignments I actually turned in was supposed to be a simple calculator with 26 assignable variables (A–Z). I thought that was boring, so I let variables be of any length and turned the calculator into a linear algebra solver so if you wrote, e.g., 2X+3Y=14 X-Y=1 X Y it would give you the values for X and Y that met the constraints. I got a C on the assignment because the TA didn’t understand my code (written in CWEB and presented as a 20+ page source listing alongside the functioning executable).

taeric 1y ago
I keep meaning to play with both. I don't know how to structure a project around it, though. :( For fonts, I think it would be fun to basically make a tiling font where you can basically make something like a dragon tiling by just playing with the letters. And kudos on that calculator! Sounds fun. Boo on the TA for giving you a C. Presumably it could be executed. When I was a TA in college, that would go a log way to getting a better grade. My not understanding something was a problem on me, not any student.