Hans, comments below:

At 10:04 07/08/2003 -0700, you wrote:

...

Hans, as a simple test, I tried saving the following as junk.mp.

input mp-tool; beginfig(1); picture p; p:=textext.rt("Hello, world!"); endfig; end.

However,

C:\temp>mpost junk (junk.mp (C:\texmf\metapost\context\base\mp-tool.mp)

...

...

unknown picture p textext.rt ! Equation cannot be performed (unknown picture=numeric). <to be read again> ( l.7 p:=textext.rt( "Hello, world!");

you should use/load metafun -)

But I have. Indeed, I completely updated Miktex, downloaded the latest Context, refreshed filename database, then ran: texexec --make --alone This rebuilds cont-en.efmt, cont-nl.efmt, and mptopdf.efmt. You can see they are new by their timestamps (08/07/2003 09:38 AM). Directory of C:\localtexmf\miktex\fmt 10/07/2002 11:34 PM <DIR> . 10/07/2002 11:34 PM <DIR> .. 11/28/2000 12:55 PM 909,544 pdflatex.fmt 08/05/2003 09:52 PM 437,192 omega.fmt 11/28/2000 12:55 PM 897,952 elatex.efmt 08/05/2003 09:52 PM 395,368 pdftex.fmt 11/28/2000 12:55 PM 926,688 lambda.fmt 08/05/2003 09:52 PM 416,704 etex.efmt 11/28/2000 12:55 PM 891,640 latex.fmt 08/05/2003 09:52 PM 376,968 plain.fmt 12/11/2002 11:05 PM 556,792 amstex.fmt 08/07/2003 09:38 AM 1,100 metafun.log 08/07/2003 09:38 AM 31,032 cont-en.log 08/07/2003 09:38 AM 32,231 cont-nl.log 08/07/2003 09:38 AM 5,373,040 cont-nl.efmt 08/07/2003 09:38 AM 3,809 mptopdf.log 08/07/2003 09:38 AM 322,768 mptopdf.efmt 08/07/2003 09:38 AM 5,319,424 cont-en.efmt 16 File(s) 16,892,252 bytes 2 Dir(s) 3,497,959,424 bytes free The command texexec --make --alone also builds metafun.mem in this same directory. It has to be moved by hand to a different directory. C:\localtexmf\miktex\mem>dir Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is F803-A135 Directory of C:\localtexmf\miktex\mem 10/07/2002 11:34 PM <DIR> . 10/07/2002 11:34 PM <DIR> .. 08/05/2003 09:52 PM 99,480 plain.mem 08/05/2003 09:52 PM 106,240 mfplain.mem 08/07/2003 09:38 AM 506,752 metafun.mem 3 File(s) 712,472 bytes 2 Dir(s) 3,497,959,424 bytes free But again, brand new. All databases are refreshed after this move. There are no other versions of these format files on my system (I checked). I've even tried texexec --make --alone --tex=pdfetex metafun and moved the resulting metafun.mem file over and refreshed the database. On this file: input mp-tool; beginfig(1); picture p; p:=textext.rt("Hello, world!"); endfig; end. I still get this error: C:\temp>mpost junk (junk.mp (C:\texmf\metapost\context\base\mp-tool.mp)

...

unknown picture p textext.rt ! Equation cannot be performed (unknown picture=numeric). <to be read again> ( l.7 p:=textext.rt( "Hello, world!"); ?

I am aware of the new placement of /metapost/context/base. C:\texmf\metapost>dir Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is F803-A135 Directory of C:\texmf\metapost 10/07/2002 11:27 PM <DIR> . 10/07/2002 11:27 PM <DIR> .. 08/05/2003 03:30 PM <DIR> context 08/05/2003 09:47 PM <DIR> base 0 File(s) 0 bytes 4 Dir(s) 3,497,893,888 bytes free C:\texmf\metapost\base>dir Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is F803-A135 Directory of C:\texmf\metapost\base 08/05/2003 09:47 PM <DIR> . 08/05/2003 09:47 PM <DIR> .. 09/07/2000 02:01 PM 7,106 boxes.mp 09/07/2000 02:01 PM 7,146 format.mp 09/07/2000 02:01 PM 27,660 graph.mp 09/07/2000 02:01 PM 4,280 marith.mp 09/07/2000 02:01 PM 19,748 mfplain.mp 03/23/1997 01:16 AM 19 mpost.mp 09/07/2000 02:01 PM 16,018 plain.mp 09/07/2000 02:01 PM 1,098 rboxes.mp 09/07/2000 02:01 PM 1,466 sarith.mp 09/07/2000 02:01 PM 794 string.mp 09/07/2000 02:01 PM 331 TEX.mp 09/07/2000 02:01 PM 424 texnum.mp 01/24/1997 08:28 PM 230 troffnum.mp 13 File(s) 86,320 bytes 2 Dir(s) 3,497,893,888 bytes free So, I am absolutely stumped. Is there anything else I can try?