yes I had realized this already but I still don't know how to get those page numbers down into MP - they keep being strings with macro code instead

is there a way the I can get \setupMPvariables[hdrPgs] in \setupheadertexts[\setups{page:header}]
to be fully evaluated and stored as the page number in the MPvariables first= and next= ??

\startsetups page:header
    \setupMPvariables[hdrPgs]
        [curr=\pagenumber,
        first={\ref[page][\headerfirst]},
        next={\ref[page][\headernext]}]

        I've tried \expanded and \numeric without success

or alternatively in MP how would I call TeX (from MP) with a string like "\ref[page][a]" and have the page number stored in a numeric var?

Thanks in advance,
Werner


Am 18.03.21 um 19:55 schrieb Hans Hagen:
On 3/18/2021 6:14 PM, Werner Hennrich wrote:

metafun         > log >
metafun         > log > error: Improper subscript has been replaced by zero
metapost        > log > <*> ... numeric numFirst; numFirst := \ref [page]
watch closely to the previous log line ... you're missing quotes so mp sees \ref [page] and as it ignores a \ it sees ref[page] which unless you defined 'ref' and 'page' triggers an error

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