Re: Notes and questions on 432 page book.

[John Culleton <john@wexfordpress.com>]

On Wednesday 05 May 2004 07:12 pm, Matthew Huggett wrote:
> John Culleton wrote:
> >...
> >
> >I use a master file and call components into it with
> > \input statements....
>
> Is there any advantage to using a master file with \input
> statements compared to using ConTeXt project and
> component files?  Or are these totally different things?
>
> Matt
> __

They are mostly different in usage.

I have a single document, a book, and I find it convenient 
to subdivide it into files. For example I carry the same 
macro set from job to job, modifying it with each 
successive use. It saves a lot of typing. And as recently 
illustrated if an error crops up I can turn off segments of 
the document for debugging purposes.  

In an authoring situation I may further subdivide the body 
component into chapters. This allows me to write the book 
in non-consecutive pieces and even rearrange it for 
different markets etc.  for example I have a file 
http://wexfordpress/tex/shortlist.pdf 
that is really a chapter to  a never-completed book.  

I have never explored the project/component structure of 
Context.  My one-person shop does not need sophisticated 
project management. I am not authoring works but 
typesetting the work of others. In a shop concerned with 
document creation, and perhaps multiple authors, the 
Context project management features would be worth another 
look.  For me they are more bother than they are worth. I 
collect all the files for a job in one directory (folder)  
and that is it.  Each job is different, so commonality is 
served by copying over the master or "book" file as well as 
some useful files like fonts.tex and macros.tex to the new 
job folder. The surname of thecustomer is the folder name.  
After many years as a management analyst, systems analyst 
and so on I have decided that simpler is better. One should 
have enough controls, enough structure, but no more than 
enough.

Also, and this is an important point, I work in pdftex and 
even plain TeX as well as Context.  My master file 
technique is generic to all these.  

Finally, I think Hans assumed too much of his readers (or at 
least this reader) when he wrote the passage on project 
etc. control. I read it but still ask myself "what is the 
cost vs. benefit" and "how does it work in the day to day 
world"? But that would take a book by itself, and there are 
more important topics to be addressed in Context 
documentation.  

-- 
John Culleton
Able Typesetters and Indexers
http://wexfordpress.com