Re: [Groff] PDFPIC macro

[Peter Schaffter]

On Wed, Sep 17, 2014, Steffen Nurpmeso wrote:
> I'm not in the position to say something to PDFPIC today (direct
> support would be pretty cool!), but there should be general tools
> for sh(1) (perl(1)...) that can be included in a defined way and
> used.  I.e., roff "libraries".
> 
> And the very same is true for generic use of external commands, as
> is used by you, and what came to my mind immediately when reading:
> 
>   .  sy pdfinfo @$1 | \
>   grep "Page *size" | \
>   sed -e 's/Page *size: *\\([[:digit:].]*\\) *x *\\([[:digit:].]*\\).*$/\
>   .nr pdf-wid (p;\\1)\\n\
>   .nr pdf-ht  (p;\\2)/' \
>   > /tmp/pdfpic\n[$$]
> 
> For example here.  There should be a way to safely generate
> temporary file names in the temporary directory that is currently
> used, whatever this is (most likely $TMPDIR).

Yes.  The way groff stands now, I'm uneasy relying on external tools
and .sy for anything but local, user-written macros.  There's precedent,
though, in www.tmac (PIMG), and this seems to be the best solution
for PDF images.

-- 
Peter Schaffter
http://www.schaffter.ca