# [NTG-context] shading box many times

Taco Hoekwater taco at elvenkind.com
Mon Nov 28 15:45:54 CET 2005


Hans Hagen wrote:
>
> it's related to the fact that there can be 1000 specials only (this
> /1000 in mp-spec)

Why?

>
> \def\MPrgbnumber#1{\expandafter\doMPrgbnumber#10000.00000\relax}
> \def\doMPrgbnumber#1.#2#3#4#5#6\relax{#2#3#4#5}
>
> \startMPinclusions
> _special_div_ := 10000 ;
> \stopMPinclusions
>
> to the file, and change all 1000's in mp-spec.tex into _special_div_ it
> works ok; so, the question (for taco is): does mp have the right
> precission (it looks ok to me, unless we need to start calculating with it)

I am not sure what you are doing, but ... in general the fractional
part of a dimension in TeX, divided by an integer, maps to an identical
fraction (of a bp) in metapost, since both use the same 16-bit (% 65536)
calculus algorithm. Same quantity, different unit.

Whether or not that makes dividing by 10.000 safe is not clear
to me. I have to read up on what is going on first.

Taco