Dear All, 

I am adding my (rather special) comments to all the other answers to Henning’s 
original question:

I use ConTeXt mainly for longer math-heavy texts like lecture notes. Right now, 
I am revising notes that I wrote in 2013 (in ConTeXt), which are revisions of 
earlier notes from previous years. 

I found the transition from LaTeX to ConTeXt enjoyable (or liberating), and the 
lack of documentation a minor issue: In LaTeX, there is too much documentation 
for my taste, and the ConTeXt mailing list and wiki have answered all my 
questions faster (thanks!)  than I could have solved my LaTeX issues.

In LaTeX, I used to spend most of my time finding and choosing the right 
package. In ConTeXt, I spend most of my time thinking about layout 
possibilities.
Sometimes I just grab a manual and read it for inspiration. 
(By the way, the new Math Manual is fantastic; I have it open at all times.)

Still, I have a few recommendations for people who would like to switch:

— If someone wants to convert long LaTeX documents, it is worth learning how to 
use regular expressions (AI will help with that these days). For instance, I 
replace my old $ xxx $ with \im{xxx} using a simple search. Similarly, 
\begin{proof} .. \end{proof} easily becomes \startproof .. \stopproof, etc

— Start with some basic setup that has environments for theorems and proofs
and your own \mathfunction definitions, and grow your documents organically.

— I learned from Aditya (thanks!) how to have environments conditionally 
typeset using modes:

\definebuffer[Solution][local=yes,nested=yes]

\startmode[solution]    
\definecolor[fade][r=0.1,g=.1,b=.8] % [r=0.9,g=.9,b=.9] 
\defineenumeration      [Solution] 
                                [text={Solution:},
                                headstyle=bold,
                                number=no,
                                before={\blank\startcolor[fade]},
                                after={\stopcolor\blank},
                                style=normal,
                                title=no
                                ]
\stopmode

This will cause any \startSolution ... \stopSolution to be typeset only when 
the “solution” mode is enabled.

— For people who use lots of graphics, it will help to look at luametafun. I 
wish I had the time to learn metapost and Lua better...

— ConTeXt offers an abundance of opportunities to structure your document by 
controlling headers and margins. Of course, one doesn’t need to use any of 
these features to typeset a document, but they offer so many opportunities to 
make the document easier and more appealing to read.  I learned only recently 
that one can use descriptions to structure longer text blocks (like proofs), 
for instance

\definedescription[Step][
  headstyle=bold, style=normal, align=flushleft, alternative=serried, 
width=fit, margin=.5cm]

And use it as in

\startStep{\quotation{\im{ (1)\Rightarrow (2)}}:}

…

\stopStep


Matthias

> On Sep 8, 2025, at 7:18 AM, Jeong Dal via ntg-context <ntg-context@ntg.nl> 
> wrote:
> 
> Dear Mikael,
> 
>> Thanks. Indeed some are personal thought, and one might not be happy
>> with the default setup.
> 
> I used the following setup for math and others in my environment file, and I 
> wonder these things are still needed since many things are already done in 
> the current version.
> 
> \setupmathematics[autopunctuation=no, integral=nolimits]
> 
> I think that it is great if you suggest a standard(?) setup for math if it 
> exist.
> 
>> We are eager to hear if there is anything we
>> can do to improve in general, though. It might also be if there is
>> something that needs a different setup for, say, Korean math.
>> 
> 
> There is no special setup for Korean math which I can tell you. Math is 
> global(?) thing.
> In Korea, almost all the Math people use LaTeX because math journals in the 
> world requires LaTeX file when we submit. 
> I hope that more Korean mathematicians use ConTeXt, then they may have 
> something to tell you. Instead, I may ask you a lot.
> 
> The pioneers of Korean TeX are mathematicians, but the situation is changed a 
> lot right now.
> 
> Thanks for writing a nice manual of math.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Dalyoung
> 
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