On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 04:22:22PM +0200, Roland Stigge wrote:
>
> Yes. Except that currently, "mtx" is called "prepmx" (/usr/bin/prepmx)
> in Debian. Might by a good idea to rename it to "mtx" /usr/bin/mtx),
> though. Any objections?
>
Wikipedia says:
MTX - A UNIX & Linux command (Quoted: `mtx` is a set of low level
driver programs to control features of SCSI backup related devices
such as autoloaders, tape changers, media jukeboxes, and tape drives.)
The number of installations that still use SCSI must be dwindling fast.
Still, if I type `mtx` on my up-to-date Ubuntu system, I get
The program 'mtx' is currently not installed. You can install it by
typing:
sudo apt-get install mtx
Debian is more conservative than Ubuntu, so I can't imagine that Debian
has chucked away that `mtx`.
There is another reason, which is not Unix/Linux specific.
Unfortunately the three letters mtx, in the fourteen years of existence
of M-Tx, have come to be pretty hard-worked in the TeX world. The
extension .mtx is used in modern ConTeXt packages as an abbreviation
for 'metrics', doubtless selected with the same smugness at finding three
suggestive but apparently available letters with which I chose M-Tx all
those years ago.
These packages contain executables 'mtxrun' and 'mtxtools', which are
rather essential ones. And LuaTeX, the future of TeX, relies on ConTeXt
infrastructure, so .mtx will be in mainstream TeX soon. Sorry Mr Macdonald,
I don't care whether your little carry-oot shop in Dunoon has been in the
family for generations, but if you plan selling burgers there, you'll have
to call it something different from Macdonald's.
The 'file' command recognizes ConTeXt .mtx files as "LaTeX auxiliary file"
(enough to make Hans Hagen choke in his Heineken, I'm sure) and M-Tx files
as "FORTRAN program" (urggh! there goes some of my Windhoek).
ConTeXt doesn't contain an executable 'mtx' just yet, though. But all the
same, I have no wish to pip Hans at this post.
Suggestion: keep the name prepmx but write a brand-new script mtx2pdf
for the whole process so that no one actually ever needs to invoke prepmx
pmxab or musixflex directly. In Lua, of course. I may even do it myself.
Dirk
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