Re: ConTeXt vs. LaTeX

[Siep Kroonenberg <siepo@cybercomm.nl>]

On Wed, Aug 04, 2004 at 06:58:48PM +0200, Zeljko Vrba wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 04, 2004 at 04:07:43PM +0200, Mojca Miklavec wrote:
> > 
> > I'm not sure if these are only the problems at the beginning (since I
> > have to look for almost any command I use) and would soon disappear or
> > would the general advice be "don't use ConTeXt if LaTeX suits your
> > needs". What are your opinions about that?

Try it for a bit and see whether you like it. Some people find that
it makes things simpler and more logical. It is a different way of
working, which may or may not suit you.

For me personally, somehow Context is a bad match, and it has been
fighting all the way. Therefore I use Context only when I have to.

> I learned Context because Latex didn't suit my
> needs (concrete example: for my diploma work, my mentor required that there
> must not be "Chapter" heading for each chapter.. If I put \chapter*, then
> it didn't appear in the table of contents.. the solution was dirty - copy
> the report class file to local directory and edit it.. however if such a simple
> problem has such a dirty solution, how could I cope with tougher problems?

The right way to handle this would have been to copy just the
relevant code fragment to a package or classfile of your own and
modify it. The code would have looked a lot hackier than
corresponding Context code, but as long as it sits neatly tucked
away in a package of its own, you wouldn't have to let that bother
you.

LaTeX source code is generally well-documented, and much easier to
find your way around in than Context code.

For presentations there are pdfscreen and pdfslide, and David Storey
has done nteractivestuff with pdf. So don't underestimate the
possibilities of LaTeX.

-- 
Siep Kroonenberg