Hi, I can't understand why the following code does not work. Could someone help me out here? \starttext \startMPpage draw textext("\convertnumber{r}{12}"); draw textext("\convertnumber{r}{" & "12" & "}"); \stopMPpage \stoptext The first draw statement works perfectly. But the second one throws out errors and complains as follows: .....test.tex: ! Missing number, treated as zero <to be read again> <argument> \number " & "12" & " \romannumerals #1->\clf_romannumerals \numexpr #1 \relax <argument> ... draw textext("\convertnumber {r}{" & "12" & "} "); \meta_process_graphic ...currentMPformat }data {#1 ;}initializations {\meta_f... \page_fitting_stop_command ...eter \c!command {#1} \page_fitting_stop_normal Is there a workaround here? Ultimately I want to replace "12" with a loop variable in MetaPost. Thanks, ~MHB