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dhosek • 05/14/2025 • 1 reply • view on HN

Metapost was first released in 1989 by John Hobby in who was also effectively a coauthor of Metafont. I will say that the MF language is really kind of a delight. It has a clear influence from TeX in its macro construction, but the presence of first-class variables which TeX lacks makes it a more productive language overall.

I was a bit inspired by it when I took my one and only CS class as an undergrad. One of the few homework assignments I actually turned in was supposed to be a simple calculator with 26 assignable variables (A–Z). I thought that was boring, so I let variables be of any length and turned the calculator into a linear algebra solver so if you wrote, e.g.,

    2X+3Y=14
    X-Y=1
    X
    Y
it would give you the values for X and Y that met the constraints. I got a C on the assignment because the TA didn’t understand my code (written in CWEB and presented as a 20+ page source listing alongside the functioning executable).

Replies

taeric • 05/15/2025

I keep meaning to play with both. I don't know how to structure a project around it, though. :(

For fonts, I think it would be fun to basically make a tiling font where you can basically make something like a dragon tiling by just playing with the letters.

And kudos on that calculator! Sounds fun. Boo on the TA for giving you a C. Presumably it could be executed. When I was a TA in college, that would go a log way to getting a better grade. My not understanding something was a problem on me, not any student.