From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.comp.tex.context/31125 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "John R. Culleton" Newsgroups: gmane.comp.tex.context Subject: Re: A new manual Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2006 13:00:19 -0400 Organization: WexfordPress Message-ID: <200609291300.19859.john@wexfordpress.com> References: <200609280920.02364.john@wexfordpress.com> <22af238a0609290719l4ceed250m171555be4bf793e3@mail.gmail.com> Reply-To: mailing list for ConTeXt users NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1159549681 13251 80.91.229.2 (29 Sep 2006 17:08:01 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2006 17:08:01 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl Fri Sep 29 19:07:52 2006 Return-path: Envelope-to: gctc-ntg-context-518@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from ronja.vet.uu.nl ([131.211.172.88] helo=ronja.ntg.nl) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1GTLnb-0000Bu-V3 for gctc-ntg-context-518@m.gmane.org; Fri, 29 Sep 2006 19:05:20 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 91A711FF3E; Fri, 29 Sep 2006 19:05:18 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from ronja.ntg.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (smtp.ntg.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id 19978-07; Fri, 29 Sep 2006 19:05:11 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from ronja.vet.uu.nl (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0156D1FF06; Fri, 29 Sep 2006 19:05:10 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8BA991FF02 for ; Fri, 29 Sep 2006 19:05:08 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from ronja.ntg.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (smtp.ntg.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id 22488-01-2 for ; Fri, 29 Sep 2006 19:04:57 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from mta10.adelphia.net (mta10.adelphia.net [68.168.78.202]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with SMTP id 4E6A21FE9F for ; Fri, 29 Sep 2006 19:04:55 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from 69-175-76-40.chvlva.adelphia.net ([69.175.76.40]) by mta10.adelphia.net (InterMail vM.6.01.05.02 201-2131-123-102-20050715) with ESMTP id <20060929170454.CHGK28964.mta10.adelphia.net@69-175-76-40.chvlva.adelphia.net> for ; Fri, 29 Sep 2006 13:04:54 -0400 Original-To: mailing list for ConTeXt users User-Agent: KMail/1.9.3 In-Reply-To: <22af238a0609290719l4ceed250m171555be4bf793e3@mail.gmail.com> Content-Disposition: inline X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at ntg.nl X-BeenThere: ntg-context@ntg.nl X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.7 Precedence: list List-Id: mailing list for ConTeXt users List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl Errors-To: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at ntg.nl Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.comp.tex.context:31125 Archived-At: On Friday 29 September 2006 10:19, gnwiii@gmail.com wrote: > On 9/28/06, John R. Culleton wrote: > > What is needed now for greater acceptance of Context is not new > > features but a new manual, perhaps a multi volume set with a > > common index. The 2001 manual is great, but many of the features > > discussed daily here are not in it. One must chase around the > > wiki and the individual manuals like "details", and that is not > > satisfactory from the point of view of the new user. Most of us > > have memorized the locations of key information but newcomers > > have not. > > I don't agree that lack of a current manual is a big problem for > potential users of ConteXt. In my experience, the biggest problem is > with the 3rd party tools (perl, ghostscript, ruby) on Win32 and legacy > commercial unix (where ruby is not provided and the system perl will > be a very old version). > Interesting. There are minimal Context distros for each of the major platforms. Does the Win verson include the missing compilers? > You can write simple LaTeX documents without working 3rd party tools > (MikTeX-2.5 seems to provide ghostscript), but you need perl and ruby > before you can format anything in ConTeXt. There should be some tools > to check the functioning and versions of ghostscript, perl, and ruby. > A VMWare player appliacance might be helpful for people with current > Win32 systems (e.g., ample CPU, disk, and RAM). > > > If a consolidated manual set were offered for sale there would be a > > lot of customers. Or an abridged version, something like the > > 1999 Excursion manual but expanded and updated, would be a > > possibility. > > Any printed manual will soon become stale. What is needed is an > introductory manual > for new users together with an ongoing process to provide current > information. The wiki is a good start, but there needs to be more > effort to ensure that the sources can be used as the definitive > manual. The introductory manual should devote considerable space to > explaining how to find current information in the wiki and or using > the source files. My preferences in order are printed book, downloadable source, downloadable pdf and online anything. Information needs to be structured, indexed, portable, easily readable. -- John Culleton Able Indexing and Typesetting Precision typesetting (tm) at reasonable cost. Satisfaction guaranteed. http://wexfordpress.com