On Jul 4, 2012, at 10:56 PM, luigi scarso wrote:
On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 12:44 AM, Rogers, Michael K <mroge02@emory.edu> wrote:

XML seems a nice way for machines to deal with data.  But it's not a very human way to speak.  I mean, if I write "\section{One}...\section{Two}" isn't it obvious that section One ends when section Two begins?  Why should I have to write \endsection, when the machine can do the bookkeeping for me?  The start/stop mechanism is nice as an option, if you plan to produce an XML document from ConTeXt.  However the XML translator could implement 'if not first section then "</section><section>" else "<section>"' and add "if in_a_section then "</section>"' when \stoptext is reached.

Hm, consider this
\section{One} \input knuth
Text
\section{Two} \input knuth
and
\startsection{One} \input knuth
\stopsection
Text
\startsection{Two} \input knuth
\stopsection

In the last one it's clear that Text is not in the section One  or in the section Two: In the first one, Text is in section One ---  but how can I put Text so that is not in section One and not in section Two ?
Most of the time section One  ends where section Two begins, but  it's not true that *always* section One  ends where section Two begins :  infact the last one is a legal example.

I agree.  When I said start/stop mechanisms are nice options, I had in mind they are useful, even indispensable, alternatives for certain sorts of structuring, as your example shows -- at the time of writing, I focused on XML.  I could equally say \section is a nice option.  Still, if I want to write a paper that consists of a sequence of sections, it's easier to just use \section, and an XML translator could be written to mark it up accordingly.

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