[NTG-context] New Member Introductory Rant
Hello ConTeXt Users, I have become obsessed with ConTeXt since I found out about it while browsing through the TeX related software on my Ubuntu Linux box. I've been teaching myself web development in XHTML/CSS over the last couple years, and developed a passion for structured documents that separate presentation as much as possible. I'm starting to setup Drupal CMS installations for some friends in preparation for doing web publishing work for clients. It's been fun to learn, but so frustrating and difficult for my poor mind. I've long been curious about TeX but it seemed too ossified, fragmented, inflexible, and hard to learn. Later I discovered LyX and understood implicitly the style based markup idea, and it's power. I've always hated things like word, open office, and DTP programs. I'm fine doing the GUI for PhotoShop, but somehow I feel I should be able to just type text, and have it come out all pretty. ConTeXt seems to share that philosophy, so I'm giddy about it. I suppose I should learn InDesign too, but I don't really want to. I use a text editor for my web coding rather than dragging boxes around in DreamWeaver. I like that I can just cut paste other people's code and learn what they did. GUI programs are harder to learn in that way since someone has to write a whole step-by-step tutorial rather than just show you their commented code. I've been working my way through the documentation, ConTeXt Garden, and whatever I can find on Google searches. I've worked my way up to making a letter head with my address, a graphic logo, and couple of font switches, and some hanging punctuation. I made another version for my journal with two columns under each section heading. I'm using Scite as my editor, but I haven't set it up anyway special. Kile didn't seem to like ConTeXt much, and it's command completion facility kept spitting out LaTeX code as I typed. I like Scite as it starts fast, has nice colors, and is easy to get around. TexFont doesn't work on Ubuntu. It craps out saying it can't find it's TeX root. Even when I set the FontRoot with the command line switch, it fails to find it's map files. I filed a bug with Ubuntu about it as it seems like some files like the font maps got put in /var/lib. So I'm completely frustrated by the font situation. Don't understand why I can't just point TexFont at my directory of OTF, TTF, and PFB fonts and have it suck up every last glyph and variant like Scribus, InkScape, and InDesign do. It should configure a reasonable set of typescripts, and tell me what's available. All the other TeX fonts should just work out of the box. Why do I have to wrestle so vainly just to get the damn fonts to be available. Also, I can't for the life of me figure out how to change typefaces in headers and footers. I can change to italics, or sizes with style=\it\x but have no clue how to switch a header to say the Zaph Chancery caligraphic. I can switch the body font to it, so I'm part way there. I'm pretty pissed off about the state of the documentation for ConTeXt. Out of date docs, that were never finished, and full of holes. Small set of MyWay articles, old dead links on the wiki, no roadmap, no bug database. It's 2008, there's things like SourceForge, and LaunchPad for these sort of things. I don't understand why Pragma can't sell support for ConTeXt like other open source projects. That way Hans can afford a staff to handle people's questions, he can focus on building what he likes (and we all love), new users can be brought in, and a virtuous cycle of new contributors, new features, and new users. TexShow is missing tons of commands I've read about in the manual, and doesn't bother to explain what any command or option does. Nor do I understand how options are chained or structured into more than simple switches. Where are the screencasts of gurus showing off how to do cool things? Where are the tutorials? Where are the contributed templates, so I can read other people's code to learn from? You'd think that people who make structured document typesetting systems would spend some more time on their documentation. I'd be glad to help, but first I'd need to learn the system. Since the docs are so incomplete, I'm not sure how I'd do that. Catch 22. I've gotten as far as letter writing, and I'm pretty happy with that. My goal is to typeset my housemate's pirate novel that she's writing. I'm going to stick it out and see how far I can get. I hope I don't have to go running back to LyX and the memoir class. I'm home sick with Hepatitis and Diabetes so I've got some quality time with my six year old Ubuntu laptop. If there are any Bay Area ConTeXt users around, I'd love to meet you. And if any one wants help setting up a better community website, I could help with that, knowing Drupal. Hope to speak with some of you soon. Regards, Corin Royal Drummond San
[NTG-context] Wiki
Hi all, Is the contextgarden down? I only get a blank page today. My firefox has been upgraded yesterday but works as usual for other sites. -- Jean ___ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___
Re: [NTG-context] Wiki
On Sun, Mar 30, 2008 at 10:07 AM, Jean Magnan de Bornier wrote: Hi all, Is the contextgarden down? I only get a blank page today. My firefox has been upgraded yesterday but works as usual for other sites. Hello Jean, Thanks a lot for the warning. Something seems to be wrong, but no idea what. ssh access doesn't work either, so I'm afraid that Patrick will need to reboot the machine (unless he has some better idea). I guess it's lack of disk space again, but it's mysterious. Whenever I check, it's 2GB free and then it gets filled somehow (temporary files, maybe logs, auto-updating of new ConTeXt distributions at several places, such as live minimals, ...). I haven't touched the garden for quite some time now, but the problems started when I started messing around :) Mea culpa. Mojca ___ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___
Re: [NTG-context] bug in modes
Hans van der Meer wrote: I guess the pairing of \startnotallmodes with \stopnotallmodes is at fault. In core-var.tex 234-235 I see: \long\def\dostartnotallmodes[#1]% {\docheckforallmodes\dostopallmodes\donothing{#1}} should be: \long\def\dostartnotallmodes[#1]% {\docheckforallmodes\dostopnotallmodes\donothing{#1}} indeed, fixed now Hans - Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com | www.pragma-pod.nl - ___ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___
[NTG-context] further stubs
Hello, I suggest putting 3 further stubs into .../scripts/context/stubs/unix : 1.) luatools: #!/bin/sh texmfstart luatools.lua $@ 2.) mtxrun: #!/bin/sh texmfstart mtxrun.lua $@ 3.) context (same file as .../scripts/context/lua/context): #!/bin/sh mtxrun --script context $@ This has 2 advantages: - you can put .../scripts/context/stubs/unix in your PATH - you can type texexec file for MKII and context file for MKIV (same for MS-Win of course) What do you think? Cheers, Peter -- http://pmrb.free.fr/contact/ ___ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___
Re: [NTG-context] New Member Introductory Rant
Hi Corin, Welcome. I will offer some brief comments, and maybe others will elaborate on things I skip, pass over, or inadequately discuss: On Sun, 30 Mar 2008 02:01:30 -0600, Corin Royal Drummond [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I've long been curious about TeX but it seemed too ossified, No, see the luatex project, developed and supported mostly (though not exclusively) by the ConTeXt community. fragmented, engines: pdfTeX is standard, luaTeX (experimental) will one day be its successor, and xeTeX is is also available for special script needs (an area where luaTeX also shines). Other TeX versions are deprecated or obsolete. In the next three years only luaTeX and xetex will be relavant. formats: ConTeXt and LaTeX. So: you have two/three engines to choose from (depending on your needs) and two formats. inflexible, This is simply not the case. Indeed, I am not aware of any foundation for typography and typesetting that is more flexible than TeX. And you have a variety of options depending on your needs, as I just explained above. and hard to learn. That is true, to an extent. OTOH ConTeXt has a very consistent interface, much more so than LaTeX's (including its package system). Later I discovered LyX and understood implicitly the style based markup idea, and it's power. LyX, now THAT's inflexible ;-) I've always hated things like word, open office, and DTP programs. I'm fine doing the GUI for PhotoShop, but somehow I feel I should be able to just type text, and have it come out all pretty. ConTeXt seems to share that philosophy, so I'm giddy about it. I suppose I should learn InDesign too, but I don't really want to. For structured elements that require automated processing ConTeXt is way ahead of InDesign AKAIK. I've been working my way through the documentation, ConTeXt Garden, and whatever I can find on Google searches. I've worked my way up to making a letter head with my address, a graphic logo, and couple of font switches, and some hanging punctuation. I made another version for my journal with two columns under each section heading. I'm using Scite as my editor, but I haven't set it up anyway special. There is a ConTeXt-enabled version of scite that is distributed by Pragma. Kile didn't seem to like ConTeXt much, and it's command completion facility kept spitting out LaTeX code as I typed. I like Scite as it starts fast, has nice colors, and is easy to get around. See the wiki http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Main_Page and search for the text editors page. For what follows, I will make a comment or two, but note the following: 1. There are people here more than happy to help you with any problems you may be experiencing. 2. In general, try to focus on one problem per email subject. 3. When possible, always give the smallest sample context file that illustrates the problem. TexFont doesn't work on Ubuntu. It craps out saying it can't find it's TeX root. Even when I set the FontRoot with the command line switch, it fails to find it's map files. I filed a bug with Ubuntu about it as it seems like some files like the font maps got put in /var/lib. So I'm completely frustrated by the font situation. Don't understand why I can't just point TexFont at my directory of OTF, TTF, and PFB fonts and have it suck up every last glyph and variant like Scribus, InkScape, and InDesign do. It should configure a reasonable set of typescripts, and tell me what's available. All the other TeX fonts should just work out of the box. Why do I have to wrestle so vainly just to get the damn fonts to be available. ConTeXt is extraordinarily flexible when it comes to fonts, and this inevitably involves much user configuration. With luaTeX and mkiv (next generation context) things will become streamlined in ways but you will have to learn to manipulate fonts the context way. There are lots of tutorials out there (see the wiki). AKAIK pdfTeX+mkii (which I presume you are using) has pretty much stabilized so bring your problems here and there is probably an easy fix. About Ubuntu, I know nothing. Make sure you have installed the latest context and are not using an old version. Also, I can't for the life of me figure out how to change typefaces in headers and footers. I can change to italics, or sizes with style=\it\x but have no clue how to switch a header to say the Zaph Chancery caligraphic. I can switch the body font to it, so I'm part way there. Send a separate email illustrating the problem (this one's easy btw: \switchtotypeface, \switchtobodyfont). I'm pretty pissed off about the state of the documentation for ConTeXt. Out of date docs, that were never finished, and full of holes. Actually, given the size of ConTeXt and the number of developers, it's amazing how much documentation there is. Look at the cup as half-full, not half-empty. Small set of MyWay articles, old dead links on the wiki, no
Re: [NTG-context] further stubs
Peter Münster wrote: Hello, I suggest putting 3 further stubs into .../scripts/context/stubs/unix : 1.) luatools: #!/bin/sh texmfstart luatools.lua $@ 2.) mtxrun: #!/bin/sh texmfstart mtxrun.lua $@ 3.) context (same file as .../scripts/context/lua/context): #!/bin/sh mtxrun --script context $@ This has 2 advantages: - you can put .../scripts/context/stubs/unix in your PATH - you can type texexec file for MKII and context file for MKIV (same for MS-Win of course) What do you think? both luatools and mtxrun are meant to be unstubbed (1) luatools itself knows about the tree and therefore can start pretty fast (2) mtxrun is the replacement for texmfstart so in our case one would have a slow stub loading a fast stub loading a program; i didn't test it but texmfstart could be a symlink to mtxrun the context command can be stubbed indeed (i need to add that one, but it's still somewhat experimental) luatools --selfupdate mtxrun --selfupdate should result in an updated versions Hans - Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com | www.pragma-pod.nl - ___ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___
[NTG-context] patch for m-chemic.tex
Hello, What about the integration of this patch from Wolfgang Schuster into the distribution: - Forwarded message from Wolfgang Schuster [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:57:37 +0100 From: Wolfgang Schuster [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: mailing list for ConTeXt users ntg-context@ntg.nl To: mailing list for ConTeXt users ntg-context@ntg.nl Subject: Re: [NTG-context] \chemical and MKIV On Thu, Feb 21, 2008 at 11:23 PM, Peter Münster [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello, The following test-file produces an error: % engine=luatex \usemodule[chemic] \starttext \chemical{CO_2} \stoptext This is tooo long. \usemodule[chemic] is enough to produce the error with mkiv. Replace the following lines in m-chemic \ifx\beginpicture\undefined \let\normalgrid\grid \let\normalaxis\axis \input pictex.tex \relax \let\pictexgrid\grid \let\pictexaxis\axis \let\grid\normalgrid \let\axis\normalaxis \fi with \ifx\beginpicture\undefined \let\beginpicture\relax \fi and the module works. Wolfgang - End forwarded message - -- http://pmrb.free.fr/contact/ ___ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___
Re: [NTG-context] New Member Introductory Rant
On Sun, Mar 30, 2008 at 10:01 AM, Corin Royal Drummond wrote: Hello ConTeXt Users, I have become obsessed with ConTeXt since I found out about it while browsing through the TeX related software on my Ubuntu Linux box. I've been teaching myself web development in XHTML/CSS over the last couple years, and developed a passion for structured documents that separate presentation as much as possible. I'm starting to setup Drupal CMS installations for some friends in preparation for doing web publishing work for clients. It's been fun to learn, but so frustrating and difficult for my poor mind. I've long been curious about TeX but it seemed too ossified, fragmented, inflexible, and hard to learn. Later I discovered LyX and understood implicitly the style based markup idea, and it's power. I've always hated things like word, open office, and DTP programs. I'm fine doing the GUI for PhotoShop, but somehow I feel I should be able to just type text, and have it come out all pretty. ConTeXt seems to share that philosophy, so I'm giddy about it. I suppose I should learn InDesign too, but I don't really want to. I use a text editor for my web coding rather than dragging boxes around in DreamWeaver. I like that I can just cut paste other people's code and learn what they did. GUI programs are harder to learn in that way since someone has to write a whole step-by-step tutorial rather than just show you their commented code. I'm using Scite as my editor, but I haven't set it up anyway special. Hans has a relatively good Scite setup on Windows that is probably not included into standard Scite, and probably not available anywhere as a separate package either. (If you want, you can take a look at http://www.pragma-ade.com/context/install/mswincontext.zip. There are quite some files for better Scite support, you only need to figure out which files you need. In case that you do that, please share your experience with others.) Kile didn't seem to like ConTeXt much, and it's command completion facility kept spitting out LaTeX code as I typed. I like Scite as it starts fast, has nice colors, and is easy to get around. A few months ago some ConTeXt support has been added to Kile. Maybe upgrading would help (But I never use Kile, so I cannot say for sure). TexFont doesn't work on Ubuntu. It craps out saying it can't find it's TeX root. Even when I set the FontRoot with the command line switch, it fails to find it's map files. I filed a bug with Ubuntu about it as it seems like some files like the font maps got put in /var/lib. So I'm completely frustrated by the font situation. Don't understand why I can't just point TexFont at my directory of OTF, TTF, and PFB fonts and have it suck up every last glyph and variant like Scribus, InkScape, and InDesign do. It should configure a reasonable set of typescripts, and tell me what's available. All the other TeX fonts should just work out of the box. Why do I have to wrestle so vainly just to get the damn fonts to be available. TeXFont is full of non-heavily-tested-functionality, which means that it sometimes works on one platform, but fails on the other. I have tried to use it in past, but then I gave up. The problem is that even though it might need fixes, it is now obsolete since the arrival of LuaTeX. I don't want to say that it's useless, just that Hans probably prefers to spend his time improving LuaTeX support than keeping that old stuff work. TexFont is written in Perl - if you have some fixes to suggest (in form of patches), go ahead. But I would rather suggest to switch to XeTeX or LuaTeX if you need more advanced fonts. It will make your life much easier. Also, I can't for the life of me figure out how to change typefaces in headers and footers. I can change to italics, or sizes with style=\it\x but have no clue how to switch a header to say the Zaph Chancery caligraphic. I can switch the body font to it, so I'm part way there. Use style={\switchtobodyfont[...]} ... = the same name size as you use in \setupbodyfont[...] I'm pretty pissed off about the state of the documentation for ConTeXt. Out of date docs, that were never finished, and full of holes. Small set of MyWay articles, Waiting for others to make new ones ... :) old dead links on the wiki, Just send a list of them (if you don't know where they should point) or simply fix them ... That's why wiki is there for. no roadmap, There might be no roadmap written anywhere explicitly, but Hans has a more clear vision in his head than 95% of any other open-source developers. The fact that it is not written anywhere (take a look at mk.pdf on Pragma or LuaTeX roadmap or mplib ideas) doesn't mean that there is none. Hans's and Taco's conference talks always have something impressive ideas to show even for those who follow the development closely. Most open source programs write a roadmap and
Re: [NTG-context] further stubs
On Sun, Mar 30 2008, Hans Hagen wrote: both luatools and mtxrun are meant to be unstubbed Allright, I'll make symbolic links in my PATH. It seems to me, that I should not need the --selfupdate then, right? the context command can be stubbed indeed (i need to add that one, but it's still somewhat experimental) Thanks! I think especially for new ConTeXt users, it will be clearer to type context file than anything else. Cheers, Peter -- http://pmrb.free.fr/contact/ ___ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___
Re: [NTG-context] further stubs
On Sun, Mar 30 2008, Hans Hagen wrote: in mkiv more things wil be simple, for instance metapost runs are now invisible (even multipass mp is done inside now), graphic conversion is built in, sorting too, and there is less dependency on external programs Great! This means perhaps also less temporary files (file.tmp, file.tuX, file-mpgraph.mp, mpgraph.mp and so on) ?! Cheers, Peter -- http://pmrb.free.fr/contact/ ___ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___
Re: [NTG-context] further stubs
Peter Münster wrote: On Sun, Mar 30 2008, Hans Hagen wrote: in mkiv more things wil be simple, for instance metapost runs are now invisible (even multipass mp is done inside now), graphic conversion is built in, sorting too, and there is less dependency on external programs Great! This means perhaps also less temporary files (file.tmp, file.tuX, file-mpgraph.mp, mpgraph.mp and so on) ?! Cheers, Peter some are still needed, but the mpgraph files are gond as are buffers (already in memory for some time in mkiv) H - Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com | www.pragma-pod.nl - ___ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___
Re: [NTG-context] New Member Introductory Rant
Hi Corin, Welcome. I will offer some brief comments, and maybe others will elaborate on things I skip, pass over, or inadequately discuss: Mojca is probably the main point person. Welcome again to ConTeXt and Best wishes Idris Dear Professor Idriss, and the Lovely ConTeXT Community, What a thoughtful and warm response to my late night introductory rant. You've most certainly gained a dedicated new user today. Your restraint and courtesy to my half-considered diatribe is most heartening. Amazingly, you managed to answer alot of questions I wasn't fully aware I was asking. Since I wrote to the list last night, I have continued learning ConTeXt at a frightening clip. Did my first drop caps, indentations, and messed around with setting width and height. I can't remember when my computer has brought me so much fun. I'm beginning to see that there is a fair amount of documentation, but it's sprayed all over and needs some TLC. I think what I'd like to contribute to ConTeXt is some more docs. I'm thinking of doing some web video screencasts (easy on Linux) showing off how to do specific things like Lettrines or multi-line headers, explaining the format of options and parameters, and generally helping people see and appreciate the ConTeXt way. I would seem that ConTeXt has a natural market in web developers who are used to writing structured documents for layout engines. Personally, I'd like to see a Drupal module that will ConTeXtify a person's website as a book or magazine for printing. How great would it be to have an automatically updating e-book for print and screen generated off your website's content based on your tags/taxonomy. Just add FortheBook tag to an article, and without one having to do any more, it will appear in the PDF available on the front page of your site. There is a LaTeX module for Drupal, but I haven't tried it. I think such a module would help to whet other web developer's appetite for ConTeXT. I think one of the joys of ConTeXt for me is that web development just sucks for typography. There are only a handful of fonts one can specify in any document unless you embed them in images (which God told me was a sin). By contrast, with ConTeXt, I feel like a kid in a candy store, with so many things I can do to my text. I nearly had a fit when I got hanging punctuation working. Thanks again for your kind counsel Idriss, I hope I can help you guys out by writing some new docs, and being an evangelist for ConTeXt. Never have I found a piece of software that so deserved wider recognition. I will definitely keep an eye out for Mojca and Luigi. Would be so excited to meet a local ConTeXt user. With deep gratitude, Corin Royal Drummond San Francisco ___ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___
Re: [NTG-context] New Member Introductory Rant
Dnia Sun, Mar 30, 2008 at 11:07:42AM -0700, Corin Royal Drummond napisa#322;(a): Dear Professor Idriss, and the Lovely ConTeXT Community, What a thoughtful and warm response to my late night introductory rant. You've most certainly gained a dedicated new user today. Your restraint and courtesy to my half-considered diatribe is most heartening. Amazingly, you managed to answer alot of questions I wasn't fully aware I was asking. Hear, hear! ;) Since I wrote to the list last night, I have continued learning ConTeXt at a frightening clip. Did my first drop caps, indentations, and messed around with setting width and height. I can't remember when my computer has brought me so much fun. Wow... I'm pretty much in the same situation - just can't wait to start using ConTeXt on a more serious basis! The only problem is, that for me writing in LaTeX (or even plain TeX) is waaay faster - I remember most commands etc. I'm beginning to see that there is a fair amount of documentation, but it's sprayed all over and needs some TLC. I think what I'd like to contribute to ConTeXt is some more docs. I'm thinking of doing some web video screencasts (easy on Linux) showing off how to do specific things like Lettrines or multi-line headers, explaining the format of options and parameters, and generally helping people see and appreciate the ConTeXt way. I had the very same plan, but currently I'm very busy. I started a page on the wiki about fonts for beginners but stopped because of poor time management:(. Hope to get to it back again; if anyone wants to help, it'd be great! And presentations/screencasts suck (I have 128 megs of RAM;)). It's better to give sample code. There is a command on ConTeXtgarden (I can't load it in my browser, so I can't check the syntax, but I've used it on the aforementioned page) which shows both the code and the result. I would seem that ConTeXt has a natural market in web developers who are used to writing structured documents for layout engines. Personally, I'd like to see a Drupal module that will ConTeXtify a person's website as a book or magazine for printing. How great would it be to have an automatically updating e-book for print and screen generated off your website's content based on your tags/taxonomy. Just add FortheBook tag to an article, and without one having to do any more, it will appear in the PDF available on the front page of your site. There is a LaTeX module for Drupal, but I haven't tried it. I think such a module would help to whet other web developer's appetite for ConTeXT. I think one of the joys of ConTeXt for me is that web development just sucks for typography. There are only a handful of fonts one can specify in any document unless you embed them in images (which God told me was a sin). By contrast, with ConTeXt, I feel like a kid in a candy store, with so many things I can do to my text. I nearly had a fit when I got hanging punctuation working. Thanks again for your kind counsel Idriss, I hope I can help you guys out by writing some new docs, and being an evangelist for ConTeXt. Never have I found a piece of software that so deserved wider recognition. I will definitely keep an eye out for Mojca and Luigi. Would be so excited to meet a local ConTeXt user. With deep gratitude, Corin Royal Drummond San Francisco Yet another ConTeXt newbie and fan;) -- Marcin Borkowski (http://mbork.faculty.fmcs.amu.edu.pl) Jezus żyje NAPRAWDĘ. A Ty? ___ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___
[NTG-context] Offer of help with ConTeXt Wiki
Hi Mojka and Everyone, Seems like the ConTeXT Wiki is down again. Judging from the list it would seem this was a regular problem. I'd really like to give back to the community by helping Context Garden grow into a one-stop shopping site for all ConTeXt seekers. Currently, things are a bit too haphazard for my tastes. I think it makes the learning curve harder than it really should be. I'm a Linux system admin, and web developer, so I could help with troubleshooting, upgrades, hosting (have my own shared server), categorizing content, soliciting articles, fleshing out the FAQ, moving some answers from the list archives to the Wiki, creating screencasts and tutorials, and stuff like that. Now would be a good time for me to work on this, as I've been ill and have lots of free time in bed. It would be wonderful to help ConTeXt's bid for world domination by crafting the best experience possible for new and experienced users to find what they need quickly. Please do contact me and let me know how I might be useful. With warmest regards, Corin Royal Drummond San Francisco ___ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___
[NTG-context] wrong weekday with MKIV
Hello, According to MKIV, today is Wednesday: \starttext \doifmodeelse{mkiv}{MKIV}{MKII}: Sunday = \date[d=30,m=3,y=2008][weekday] ? \stoptext Cheers, Peter -- http://pmrb.free.fr/contact/ ___ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___
Re: [NTG-context] Offer of help with ConTeXt Wiki
I'm a Linux system admin, and web developer, so I could help with troubleshooting, upgrades, hosting (have my own shared server), The problem is really hosting. For some reason, the machine, a virtual server with approximately 20GB disk space, stops responding to HTTP queries (or SSH, etc.) when the main partition is about 99% full or so. Patrick Gundlach, who runs the server, has already discussed options to migrate it, but the situation has remained the same for the last few months. We have not attempted to diagnose the problem (in case you have any idea ...). Actually, now I think about it, you would certainly be welcome to run a mirror of the Garden in the U.S., since Patrick's machine is located in Germany. This would probably be even better than simply replacing it (and of course still leaves the particular problem to be solved on the German server, but it must have happened three or four times in the past six months, so it's not that terrible either). Arthur ___ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___
Re: [NTG-context] New Member Introductory Rant
On Sun, 30 Mar 2008 16:50:59 +0200, Mojca Miklavec wrote: I don't know the English version of it (there must be one - if anyone knows it, I would be glad to hear it), but we have a nice saying, literally translated as: Farrier's own mare is always barefoot. (In English it's almost exactly the same, except we usually use the shoemaker's children instead of the farrier's mare.) David ___ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___
[NTG-context] Server Mirror
Corin said: I'm a Linux system admin, and web developer, so I could help with troubleshooting, upgrades, hosting (have my own shared server), Arthur responded: The problem is really hosting. For some reason, the machine, a virtual server with approximately 20GB disk space, stops responding I'd certainly be happy to setup a US mirror with some help from you and Patrick. I'm not sure from your message whether the Context Garden itself is 20GB huge for some reason, or if the virtual server has 20GB of stuff from multiple customers clogging it up. I have Site5's Juggernaut plan, which gives me 1,500GB and 15TB of bandwidth a month. Hosting is cheap here. I think I paid a hundred dollars for a year. Can host unlimited websites domains Since I can't get to the Wiki today, I don't know what software it's running. If you let me know I'll start looking into it's requirements. Cheers, Corin Royal Drummond ___ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___
Re: [NTG-context] New Member Introductory Rant
By reading the source :) Joking of course ... but not entirely. Yes, that's an important point. Many times the options I'm searching for are not documented: so, or I'm able to find an example in wiki/ mailing list or probably it would be easy to take a look to the sources, I guess. I know it's far from being polite, but really I'd like to have a How- to-find-your-way-thru-the-source Tutorial for total newbie. On my mac, they are hidden: so, first step, change your visualization preferences thru a googled script form Terminal. Second, the (in) famous tex tree structure is far from being clear for me. Third, and most important, how to extract infos from sources? This is my main (only) frustration with ConTeXt, Just 2c Best -a- -- Andrea Valle -- CIRMA - DAMS Università degli Studi di Torino -- http://www.cirma.unito.it/andrea/ -- http://www.myspace.com/andreavalle -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- I did this interview where I just mentioned that I read Foucault. Who doesn't in university, right? I was in this strip club giving this guy a lap dance and all he wanted to do was to discuss Foucault with me. Well, I can stand naked and do my little dance, or I can discuss Foucault, but not at the same time; too much information. (Annabel Chong) -- Andrea Valle -- CIRMA - DAMS Università degli Studi di Torino -- http://www.cirma.unito.it/andrea/ -- http://www.myspace.com/andreavalle -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Think of it as seasoning . noise [salt] is boring . F(blah) [food without salt] can be boring . F(noise, blah) can be really tasty (Ken Perlin on noise) ___ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___
Re: [NTG-context] Offer of help with ConTeXt Wiki
Arthur Reutenauer wrote: I'm a Linux system admin, and web developer, so I could help with troubleshooting, upgrades, hosting (have my own shared server), The problem is really hosting. For some reason, the machine, a virtual server with approximately 20GB disk space, stops responding to HTTP queries (or SSH, etc.) when the main partition is about 99% full or so. Patrick Gundlach, who runs the server, has already discussed options to migrate it, but the situation has remained the same for the last few months. We have not attempted to diagnose the problem (in case you have any idea ...). Actually, now I think about it, you would certainly be welcome to run a mirror of the Garden in the U.S., since Patrick's machine is located in Germany. This would probably be even better than simply replacing it (and of course still leaves the particular problem to be solved on the German server, but it must have happened three or four times in the past six months, so it's not that terrible either). if i remember right, taco could provide a bigger vm; in that case mirroring can be part the game - Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com | www.pragma-pod.nl - ___ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___
[NTG-context] Software manual template request
Hello, Does anyone has a template for software manual? I have vague notion about how it should look like, but, well, I'll know when I see it. ;o) Most modern manuals have common design elements; I wish I had an environment which captures the spirit. Needless to say, untouched LuaTex envinroment gives too much academic look. Can anyone kindly suggest something? Best regards, Vyatcheslav Yatskovsky ___ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___