Very Computer

Used Cygwin's setup program to auto-download-and-install tetex-base,
tetex-doc, tetex-bin, and tetex-extra and their dependencies. Apparently
one of them got missed. texconfig init reports:

running `mfw -ini   -base=mfw -progname=mfw mf.ini' ...
mfw: not found
Error: `mfw -ini  -base=mfw -progname=mfw mf.ini' failed

Not sure if this meant mfw was itself missing or that something else
(mf.ini?) was being reported missing by mfw, I put "which mfw" on the
command line and determined that it is the former.

It looks like I'm missing a dependency here.
Cygwin's package search tool on its Web site reveals that the only Cygwin
package with an "mfw" in it is tetex-x11.

Anyone know what gives? I don't intend to be using it under X, so I
should not need to install an X11 package, but the installation of the
base system without the X11 package fails without this "mfw" warning me
that not all the formats have been built... Did the Cygwin folks goof --
and if so, should "mfw" be in another package, is tetex-x11 meant to be a
dependency of the base system after all, or is the base system not
supposed to be complaining about mfw's absence or failing to init
completely without it?

(dreading having to download over dialup a 10+ meg archive most of whose
contents he won't even use...)

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Quote:>Used Cygwin's setup program to auto-download-and-install tetex-base,
>tetex-doc, tetex-bin, and tetex-extra and their dependencies. Apparently
>one of them got missed. texconfig init reports:

>running `mfw -ini   -base=mfw -progname=mfw mf.ini' ...
>mfw: not found
>Error: `mfw -ini  -base=mfw -progname=mfw mf.ini' failed

>Not sure if this meant mfw was itself missing or that something else
>(mf.ini?) was being reported missing by mfw, I put "which mfw" on the
>command line and determined that it is the former.

if it meant mf.ini, mf itself would have failed here.

Quote:>It looks like I'm missing a dependency here.
>Cygwin's package search tool on its Web site reveals that the only Cygwin
>package with an "mfw" in it is tetex-x11.

seems fair enough.  mfw is a version of metafont with an x11 interface
built in.  it's mostly useful when you're developing a font, which is
rather a minority activity nowadays, i find ;-)

Quote:>Anyone know what gives? I don't intend to be using it under X, so I
>should not need to install an X11 package, but the installation of the
>base system without the X11 package fails without this "mfw" warning me
>that not all the formats have been built... Did the Cygwin folks goof --
>and if so, should "mfw" be in another package, is tetex-x11 meant to be a
>dependency of the base system after all, or is the base system not
>supposed to be complaining about mfw's absence or failing to init
>completely without it?

i would guess the cygwin people goofed (at the least in failing to
tell you that this can't work).  you need x11 to run mfw, so in your
case i would advise steeling yourself to ignoring the diagnostic.

what are you going to do for a previewer? -- does cygwin come with an
alternative to xdvi? -- that's the other major use of x11 by tetex.
--
Robin Fairbairns, Cambridge -- rf10 at cam dot ac dot uk

Fairbairns) wrote in comp.text.tex...

Quote:> i would guess the cygwin people goofed (at the least in failing to
> tell you that this can't work).  you need x11 to run mfw, so in your
> case i would advise steeling yourself to ignoring the diagnostic.

Will it work for basic TeX translation -- TeX in, dvi and pdf out --
without mfw? (If so, perhaps this diagnostic ought to be a warning
instead...)

Quote:> what are you going to do for a previewer? -- does cygwin come with an
> alternative to xdvi? -- that's the other major use of x11 by tetex.

It doesn't appear to. The doc HTML claimed ghostview and friends could
view "dvi, ps, and pdf" files but they don't do dvi directly.
Fortunately, that's not a problem with a ton of unix tools sitting
around. I now have a dvi file association that invokes bash with argument
a shell script that feeds the file to dvips and then feeds the output
(put in /usr/tmp) to gsview. After some twiddling to make it deal with
paths full of spaces and backslashes that Winblows generates, it works --
I can click dvi file links in the Web browser or double click dvi files
in Explorer and they come up (after a brief pause) in gsview.

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(i think you have your galactic geography a little askew)

Quote:>> i would guess the cygwin people goofed (at the least in failing to
>> tell you that this can't work).  you need x11 to run mfw, so in your
>> case i would advise steeling yourself to ignoring the diagnostic.

>Will it work for basic TeX translation -- TeX in, dvi and pdf out --
>without mfw? (If so, perhaps this diagnostic ought to be a warning
>instead...)

as i said, mfw is primarily for font design: you really don't _need_
it for anything else, imo.

the diagnostic shouldn't be there at all; it's provoked by an entry in
an initialisation script config file, and the cygwin people should
have removed it.

Quote:>> what are you going to do for a previewer? -- does cygwin come with an
>> alternative to xdvi? -- that's the other major use of x11 by tetex.

>It doesn't appear to. The doc HTML claimed ghostview and friends could
>view "dvi, ps, and pdf" files but they don't do dvi directly.  [...]

fine, i suppose.  _i_ don't like ghostscript as a previewer, much, but
it does the job.
--
Robin Fairbairns, Cambridge -- rf10 at cam dot ac dot uk

No, Cambridge *is* in a galaxy far, far away...it took me *ages*
to get there from Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross...

Windows users see the "Star Wars" version of telnet.exe at
http://www.uselesscreations.com/UselessTelnet/ which scrolls
your TTY to the correct vanishing-point :-)

///Peter

Cygwin (optionally) includes X11 and the associated X11 binaries
including mfw and xdvi.

% Used Cygwin's setup program to auto-download-and-install tetex-base,
% tetex-doc, tetex-bin, and tetex-extra and their dependencies. Apparently
% one of them got missed. texconfig init reports:

I've read through this thread, and I think you'd be better off using
fpTeX.

--

Patrick TJ McPhee
East York  Canada

i don't doubt it.  the complaint is that there's nothing "optional"
about configuring mfw (i.e., making a base file for it) -- install
attempts that whether the system contains (or is going to contain) mfw
or not.
--
Robin Fairbairns, Cambridge -- rf10 at cam dot ac dot uk