🚀 go-pugleaf

ecsgrt@luxor.latrobe.edu.au (Geoffrey Tobin) writes:

>METAFONT for Beginners.    Sun, 6 Sep 1992.    Geoffrey Tobin.
>-----------------------
...
>2a.  Base Loading.

>MetaFont will load the "plain" (or in Web2c Unix TeX, "mf.base"), if
>you type:

>    mf fred

>But if you omit the argument,

>    mf

>then _no_ base is preloaded, so "mf" is then equivalent to "virmf",
>which only understands MetaFont's primitives, which are the commands
>preceded by an asterisk in the Index to The METAFONTbook.
No commandline->first input line becomes command line. virmf ALWAYS
preloads a format (plain if nothing else). Only inimf does not preload.
>Then mf displays a "**" prompt, to which you may have to type
>everything in fine detail:

>    ** &plain \mode=localfont; mag=magstep(1); input fred

>In unix, this has the advantage that those pesky apostrophes are not
>needed.  The "&" tells MetaFont that "plain" refers to "plain.base",
>not to "plain.mf".
Formats and bases are entirely different pieces of cake. & means do not
preload plain, but...