Automatic conversion from picture commands to tikz-pgf

Question

I'm trying to modify an old document with a bunch of images created using the picture/pict2e environment.
The problem is that I need to improve these images, but adding some new features in those old environments sometimes require a lot of work, while in TikZ would be just a couple of parameters.

So, the question: is there a way to automatically convert picture images into TikZ/pgf images ?

Answer 1

Just to summarize Joseph's NO and add a but. If you are willing to spend a lot longer than simply translating the code you had the misfortune to inherit, here is a methodology.

First you need to write gobbling macros for all the pict2e macros, including also a whole lot of macros from the original picture environment as well. How you do that? For example to gobble the \picture macro you can use:

\def\picture(#1,#2)(#3,#4){%
  \def\storepiconevar{#1}
  \def\storepictwovar{#2}
  \def\storepictthreevar{#3}
  \def\storepicfourvar{#4}
  % starts the tikZ environment
  \tikzpicture
}
  % ends the tikZ environment
\def\endpicture{\endtikzpicture}

For some you maybe able to develop translation macros between the two such as the simplistic example below (not showing any actual calculations for simplicity).

 \def\line(#1,#2)#3{\draw(#2,#1)--(#1,#1);}

Trying it out in a MWE:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\def\picture(#1,#2)(#3,#4){%
  \def\storepiconevar{#1}
  \def\storepictwovar{#2}
  \def\storepictthreevar{#3}
  \def\storepicfourvar{#4}
  % starts the tikZ environment
  \tikzpicture
}
\def\endpicture{\endtikzpicture}
\def\line(#1,#2)#3{\draw(#2,#1)--(#1,#1);}
\begin{document}
\unitlength=0.5cm
\begin{picture}(0,0)(2,0)
  \line(1,0){2}
\end{picture}
\end{document}

Worth a try if you want to learn both pict2e and tikZ very well. Let us know if you come up with a package.