Re: my new page on layout

[Paul Tremblay <phthenry@iglou.com>]

On Sun, Mar 27, 2005 at 10:38:54AM +0000, Adam Lindsay wrote:

>I guess my gripe was with how web pages work, combined with your
>prescriptive tone: I only looked at that page2.html, because that's the
>one you linked to. Deep linking happens all the time, and Google only  
>multiplies the problem. People seeing only that page2 lose all context,
>and as a result, many people who have nothing to do with XML will see
>your page and think "oh, that's the only way to do it."

I agree with your point. Also, I realize I am a novice and not an expert
who has worked with ConTeXt for 10 years. The problem is keeping the
prose as concise as possible. Having to continually say at each
description "One possible way to solve this problem that I found works
for me is to..." would make things verbose. 

One soluton is to put a type of disclaimer at the top of each page:
"This primary audience for this page is XML authors who want to use
ConTeXt to format an XML document." 

> 
> >Thanks for yoru feedback. I wish I had understood the width=middle
> >earlier. 
> 
> Well, no problem. I feel like I'm still learning the intricacies of
> Layout, but I do intend on documenting some hacks sometime...
> 
> A pair of "Tips":
> * If you set cutspace/bottomspace to 0pt, ConTeXt automatically makes it
> equal to backspace/topspace

Ah! Good tip. 

> 
> Now that you have cutspace sorted, horoffset and veroffset don't seem as
> necessary. (Especially as they don't seem to work with odd/even layouts,
> at least as I've observed.)

Yes, I thought of that last night. I kept that section in because it was
still accurate, but I really should get rid of it.

> 
> There's something a bit too absolute and limiting about your statements:
> 
> >Unfortunately, the text width must be the same on all pages. If you
> >change the width from one page to the next, the text will not necessarily
> >line up.

> 
> Taken out of context, this sounds very dire for ConTeXt. Might I suggest
> a qualifier "must be the same on all pages *that are part of the same
> text flow*."

Yes, I completely agree. I thought of this as well. I'll change this.

Thanks again. I think your input has made my document stronger, and I
hope my document will help my ConTeXt easier to understand, even in a
small way. 

Paul

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*Paul Tremblay         *
*phthenry@iglou.com    *
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