Dear Mojca, On Sun, 19 Apr 2009, Mojca Miklavec wrote:
If Asymptote is not able to handle PDF files, maybe Asymptote itself would need extensions. (When I last tried to use Asymptote I gave up since I was not able to figure out how to install it and started using other tools.)
This (installation problems) is part of the question why typesetting in Asymptote with ConTeXt is desirable - no need to maintain separate LaTeX installation, avoiding mixup with older version of ConTeXt that comes with it, etc. And at this moment Asymptote is (almost) the only tool that makes 3D PDF directly (without $$$$ Windows-only converter like Acrobat), is Metapost-like and not some CAD monster or VRML fossil.
If you would like asymptote to handle ConTeXt labels you should start with mkii. But honestly: I don't really see when LaTeX for typesetting labels would not suffice. ConTeXt is extremely good at page formatting, but when it comes to typeset "$A$" for point labels, I would not mind using LaTeX (If it's only about OpenType you cannot do anything unless Asymptote gets extended, but even then you could use XeTeX.)
Apart from maintenance problems with the zoo of tools, Asymptote aspires for high quality of labels (and has invested considerable effort to preserve it in 3D mode), that implies that labels are to be in the same font as the main text and/or follow some predetermined style. That requirement is not easy to follow consistently if different tools are used to typeset body of the article and labels on pics. http://tug.org/pracjourn/2005-1/levine/levine.pdf
But as far as I know, if the only critical step is conversion of font outlines into curves, gs is able to read PDF files as well. I see no reason why one would require PS unless one uses very basic techniques for document manipulation (it's a bit easier to parse and work with PS than it is to work with PDF, but when it's done inside a bigger project it probably pays off to support both; I guess that the overhead should not be that big).
As a side note - PS is a programming language very well suited for just this kind of problems. ;) Sincerely, Michail