From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.comp.tex.context/1563 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Gilbert van den Dobbelsteen" Newsgroups: gmane.comp.tex.context Subject: Re: (La)TeX vs ConTeX ? Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 10:02:17 +0100 Sender: owner-ntg-context@let.uu.nl Message-ID: <000201bf6264$be98cd80$0c01a8c1@loginbv.com> References: <04a901bf6229$273921a0$dcd041c2@golias> NNTP-Posting-Host: coloc-standby.netfonds.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1035392384 1415 80.91.224.250 (23 Oct 2002 16:59:44 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2002 16:59:44 +0000 (UTC) Original-To: "Jorge Vilhena" , "NTG-ConTeXt" Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.comp.tex.context:1563 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.comp.tex.context:1563 ----- Original Message ----- From: Jorge Vilhena To: Sent: woensdag 19 januari 2000 2:00 Subject: (La)TeX vs ConTeX ? > Hello TeX Friends > > I'm new to the world of TeX and I've one question that I would like someone > to answer me. Here it is. > What is the main differences between LaTeX and ConTeX, and what was the goal > in ConTeX creation? Perhaps Taco can answer this much better than I can but let's give it a try. If you want a stable macro-package that has decent features and is not to complicatied, you should choose LaTeX 2.09 (this is old). If you want a package that doesn't change a lot you could use LaTeXe (the newer LaTeX), and if you want state-of-the-art, you could use ConTeXt LaTex has many, many packages, and many usefull features and stuff. Since these packages are written by different users, they usually do not work well together (if the thing they do is similar). In practice you wouldn't notice that. LaTeX also has a lot of users, so asking some questions and getting the answers is usually easier, especially if there is a package that supports your question. ConTeXt is a sort of next generation stuff. It is pretty new, and can do pretty advanced stuff. Some of the features: Figure support: .eps, .png, .jpeg .pdf. If you have .eps files and you are using pdftex, you'll need to convert the figures to pdf first. Ghostscript can do that for you, but in my experience Acrobat Distiller does a better job. The other formats are directly supported. The figure mechanism is advanced and I am sure it is better than what LaTeX has to offer here. Tables: This is simply better than in LaTeX. Formula's: Currenty there is a math module, written by Taco, but I am not sure what the status is. If your fomulas are in plainTeX then there is no problem at all, ConTeXt supports all plain TeX stuff (in fact ConTeXt supports plain TeX better than LaTeX does). Bibliography: This is in the works, and Taco wrote a bib-tex module. Furthermore: ConTeXt let's you easily create your own sectioning mechanism. LaTeX is more restricted in this. ConTeXt has a greater learning curve since you'll have to find out many things by yourself (though the members of this list are eager to help and support you). I found the learning curve to be very rewarding. if you have a lot of LaTex friends, you can see the diference after a while. ConTeXt simply makes more sense. ConTeXt is also much more advanced if it comes to interaction, and references (the: see figure XXX on page YYY stuff). If you use pdf as a output-format things are made automagically clickable, and so on. ConText also has better support for page-re-arranging, multiple table-of contents, multiple indices, multiple paragraph levels while in LaTeX you are always stuck with \section \subsection stuff. Best thing for you to do is look at the manuals. There is a decent beginners guide which is pretty down-the-drain. There is a reference guide (currently partly in English, thogh much can be learned from the Dutch manual (even if you don't know Dutch)). ConTeXt is also more futurisic, while LaTeX tends to be more old-fashioned (Don't know if that's what you're looking for). Changing the layout of your document is usually much easier in ConTeXt. Gilbert.