Taco Hoekwater wrote:
What do you do with ConTeXT?
I developed a workflow for (particle accelerator) conference proceedings using XML, Perl, and LaTeX. This task was an easy one, because it doesn't matter whether you need to combine 50 or 1400 papers, each page or book will look exactly the same for each conference series. But I became very dissatisfied with the standard abstract booklet(s) which have to be produced for the participants of such conferences. Here you (nearly) have the full freedom of putting the information together. When my original design (using bleeding boxes for titles, author names, and paper code information) brought me to the limits of LaTeX, I discussed what I wanted with Hans. His statement, 'No problem!', led to the question 'How?'. Within a week I learnt basic ConTeXt, and Hans provided the macros to combine METAPOST and TeX in a way that still leads to questions 'How was that done?.' So I now always include a 'Production Note' in my books and booklets to tell people what you can do with ConTeXt and TeX. Especially if you have Hans on-(a telephone)-line :-) In the meantime this 'Abstract Booklet Software' is part of scripts which are used for various conferences. One short example (it was printed as A5 booklet) you can find on the conference web page: http://bel.gsi.de/dipac2005/ --> Abstract Booklet or http://bel.gsi.de/dipac2005/papers/abstract.pdf Pages 3-16, 19-68 are produced by the scripts, starting at page 19 you will see what Hans does with METAPOST in an otherwise dull looking document. What I like to see is a documentation for beginners and advanced users, written not by the 'Master' himself. Up to now I could cope with my problems being able to reach Hans by mail or phone nearly everywhere and anytime. So, much of the praise I got for the booklets I owe to him. And for that I have to express my thanks! When I'm asked by TeX-aware people, what ConTeXt is, I now like to answer by citing Steve Grathwohl: 'What LaTeX was for the 20th century, ConTeXt is for the 21st!' Cheers, Volker _______________________________________________ ntg-context mailing list ntg-context@ntg.nl http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
