Re: beginner's questions

["Christopher Tipper" <chris.tipper@e-conomist.fsnet.co.uk>]

Frans Goddijn writes 11-11-2000:

> I wish I could order The ConTeXt manual somewhere, finished,
> complete, with examples, nicely bound ;-)) But we have to wait

I too like nicely bound books, but I find that I have been using Context for nearly a year and I've never had to print anything. This says a lot about Hans' design efforts as much as the PDF features. The only manual I have had problems navigating is the Beginners Manual, compounded by the fact that page numbers are not aligned with the PDF.

Also the fact that the manuals are not finished is good as well as bad. OK, so we don't have everything at our finger tips, but Hans is the only tech support guy I know who will 'rewrite' the software if we have a problem. He doesn't get enough thanks to be honest, but I'm sure the VCs will be knocking soon! :-) 

Hopefully, eventually the package will stabilise, but I don't think Adobe have finished designing PDF, so it is too much to hope that we have all the features 'right-now'. And lets not forget to give credit to the module authors. Taco has done some fine stuff with the m-bib module, and with this addition Context becomes a complete replacement for latex with many of the desirable features of plain-TeX thrown in in a nicely abstracted way. Thank you!

Best wishes,
Christopher