[NTG-context] ConTeXt + asymptote

[Mojca Miklavec]

On 4/21/06, Sanjoy Mahajan wrote:
> I started rewriting the asymptote code to use plain TeX -- I had never
> used ConTeXt back then, so didn't even try to make that work.  But
> maybe the TeX changes will help those more expert in ConTeXt to make
> them.  I'll dig out my half-finished changes for public onsumption.
>
> The asymptote authors said that they welcome asymptote working with
> other tex formats (someone else had asked about ConTeXt),

Probably me ;) But I've given up once I saw how harcoded LaTeX was in
there. Metapost support in ConTeXt is much deeper and I wonder how
much work should be invested into making as good support for Asymptote
in ConTeXt as it is now for metapost.

For me Asymptote to Metapost is like XeTeX to TeX: I think that the
first one is better, but I "can't" use it. (3D, animation & big
numbers support would be more than urgent for metapost, but it's so
complex to modify the code that I can understand why it's easier to
write a new engine like Asymptote than extending the old metapost.)

There's a very similar situation with hardcoded LaTeX in PyX,
Wiki2PDF, ... Well, people who write those don't write it with
anything else but LaTeX in mind which is a pitty.

> and prefer,
> rather than their having to modify it themselves, that users of those
> formats submit the changes (they use LaTeX themselves).

And thanks to Jilani for pointing out the existence of Tioga.

Mojca