[NTG-context] Problem with LMTX on macOS: no format file given, quitting

[Hans Hagen]

On 2/12/2023 5:34 PM, Pablo Rodriguez via ntg-context wrote:
> On 2/12/23 16:28, Tommaso Gordini via ntg-context wrote:
>> [...]
>> However, I also get this:
>>
>> charlie at Air-di-Tommaso ~ % luametatex
>> startup error : no format file given, quitting
> 
> Hi Tommaso,
> 
> my ConTeXt LMTX is fully functional and I get this message too.
sure, because that message is okay: luametatex cannot do anything useful 
until it is properly initialized so you need to either run it in ini 
mode or provide a format file (made in ini mode)

just ask yourself: what would you expect the 'luametatex' command 
(without any commandline argumment) to do ... it has to be told how to 
read files, what primitives to enable, how to locate and load fonts, how 
to produce backend code ... not much different from running 'lua' or 
whatever scripting language that expects some source to work with

the 'mtxrun' and 'context' commands are basically 'luametatex' with a 
different name so that it knows what script / format to load

Hans

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