Not knowing anything about the *context* of this request, it would seem that a better approach is to use expl3 in some sort of preprocessor that could then use context to typeset text.
Alan On Thu, 27 Aug 2026 22:22:21 +0200 Hans Hagen via ntg-context <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, > > > Dear Hans, > > > > I understand that you personally don't find expl3 compelling and > > that there may be strong technical reasons against supporting it in > > ConTeXt, particularly if the direction of ConTeXt is to expose most > > higher-level interfaces through Lua. > > I doubt it's only me but anyway, I'm not sure what you mean with high > level interfaces here. Most macro based interfaces are just 'tex' > interfaces but indeed all those are also available from lua. Users > are free to use and mix these. One can actually wonder if hiding > primitive tex behind some layer isn't a mesage in its own, like: > don't use tex the language, which then also removed some charm. We > like to keep that visible and on-board. There are some low level > helpers but users rarely need these. Then there is of course the > 'pure tex' interface, primitives and such. That repertoire is larger > than in other engines and thereby less is needed between pure tex and > high level interfaces. No need for many _ and : in helpers. > > > Even so, I think it could be interesting to tackle a few > > representative tasks in ConTeXt using both expl3 and Lua and > > discuss the comparison at a ConTeXt meeting. Even if expl3 itself > > had little to offer ConTeXt, comparing the two approaches -- their > > design philosophies, trade-offs, and underlying ideas -- seems > > interesting in its own right and, who knows, might even inspire > > some future developments in ConTeXt. > > A I mentioned, interfaces like expl (from what I've seen) are of > little use to context and basically drive us back in time. The design > philosophies between context and latex are different anyways, they > have little in common. I honestly don't want to discuss trade-offs > and underlying ideas (tex politics) and/or functionality. > > With respect to future developments, we moved away from mkii, via > mkiv and arrived at where we always wanted to be in mkxl (also > performance wise). It's not like we have plans for big fundamental > changes, we're more into improving and exploring new things (like in > metapost) and these don't demand new paradigms. We have some ideas > but these are then a mix between user level functionality and core > engine functionality, some intermediate layer is not part of that > thinking, > > (it's kind of hard to explain how we see things I guess) > > Hans > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE > Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands > tel: 038 477 53 69 | www.pragma-ade.nl | www.pragma-pod.nl > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > ___________________________________________________________________________________ > If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an > entry to the Wiki! > > maillist : [email protected] / > https://mailman.ntg.nl/mailman3/lists/ntg-context.ntg.nl webpage : > https://www.pragma-ade.nl / https://context.aanhet.net (mirror) > archive : https://github.com/contextgarden/context wiki : > https://wiki.contextgarden.net > ___________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : [email protected] / https://mailman.ntg.nl/mailman3/lists/ntg-context.ntg.nl webpage : https://www.pragma-ade.nl / https://context.aanhet.net (mirror) archive : https://github.com/contextgarden/context wiki : https://wiki.contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________
