Wookey wrote:
The main disadvantage of this is that people can't change of add metapost definitions without recompiling therion, right? If the definitions were read at run-time then we could package UIS or ASF or BCRA or whatever symbols separately and install the version you need rather than having a huge executable.
I understand why you've done what you've done, but all of us agree it's a horrible hack and I think we should keep it under review if it's really sensible. How big are the definitions so far and how big do we expect them to get?
The Official UIS list of cave symbols is available from: http://www.karto.ethz.ch/neumann-cgi/cave_symbol.pl
If they are, and weill remain, quite small and only a tiny number of people will want to change them then the current scheme should work OK.
Its a big list but it is quite static. However it does allow countries to maintain the use of some of their own symbols - for instance in Australia we will be retaining a few of the older symbols. Thus cavers will want to have small customised sets. We reallly therefore need to load them at runtime via a library or a package like LaTeX does. Probably as plain text mpost macros in a file that is called up by the thconfig file. Mike pondered.....
The reason why I am trying t fit it together is so I can do things like make my own symbols -- well even help you make the many other UIS symbols that arent in therion yet too. I dont know much metapost but can learn. It appears at present that to add new symbols one must add the mp code and then recompile.
It's possible to add/change metapost symbols without new therion compilation. The interface is rather experimental but should work.
ah, I should have read this first.
but it was undocumented. :-) I will try and help with documentation.
Welcome aboard Michael, BTW - the more hands the merrier I think. Therion is the way forward but it still needs plenty of work to make it accessible to the less geeky cave surveyor.
I can help with documentation. I am good at LaTeX, I am making some headway with plain TeX (even have Knuths book) and I might have to learn C++ :-) Mike -- Mike Lake Caver, Linux enthusiast and interested in anything technical.