Re: Page Numbering Hell

[Alan BRASLAU <alan.braslau@cea.fr>]

Dear Bryant,

Your post is slightly exaggerated.
The document structure that you want to produce
appears to be relatively standard. Whereas,
indeed, the learning curve for ConTeXt (as for TeX)
can be somewhat slow, the richness and powerfulness
is well worth the effort.

The documentation for ConTeXt (mkii) is quite rich,
although it did take me some time to get used to
the presentation and style. Some of the syntax
has evolved in mkiv, mostly in an effort of
simplification, but also to allow some powerful
new features. The documentation is (slowly)
being updated, as this is a tremendous effort.
But it is a necessary effort. I believe that
all of us users will appreciate the updated
reference manual when it is completed!

A notable change between mkii and mkiv
is the handling of document structure.
I, too, have had a difficult time with this evolution
of such a fundamental functionality and will
therefore let someone more expert reply to
your request with specific examples on how
to tune the style, notably page numbering;
it should be a simple matter.

Alan

% missing setups to:
% 1. frontmatter pagenumbering conversion=romannumerals
% 2. bodymatter pagenumbering "chapter-page"
% 3. reset pagenumber for each chapter
% 4. add blank pages if necessary to start chapters on odd pages.

\starttext

\startfrontmatter
\completecontent
\stopfrontmatter

\startbodymatter
\chapter{Chapter}
\section{Section}
\chapter{Chapter 2}
\section{Section}
\stopbodymatter

\stoptext

On Wednesday 21 October 2009 08:36:35 Bryant Eastham wrote:
> All-
> 
> A few days ago when I first stumbled on ConTeXt I was very, very
> excited. I have some 500 pages of technical documentation that could
> benefit from this, particularly since I need Japanese font support. But
> it has to be real.
> 
> I'm sorry if this sounds caustic, but after 12 hours of failed attempts
> to even get a minimal document formatted I have some serious questions
> for the list:
> 
> 1.       Is Mark IV real? I am only somewhat joking here - after
> spending hours searching for reasonable documentation on even the most
> trivial options, I am left wondering whether this is something I want to
> use...
> 
> 2.       ConTeXt looks great. But what is current? Seriously, I like the
> look and the support (particularly Unicode). But going over
> documentation I cannot make heads or tails of what to do. Mark II? Mark
> IV? TeTeX? LuaTeX? If I really want to use this, what should I use?
> 
> 3.       Having answered #2, where in the world is a reference manual!!!
> I mean one that actually *documents the options*.
> 
> 4.       Having answered #3, are there any current examples that
> actually work? The snippets from the mailing are great, but they are
> just snippets. That doesn't help me.
> 
> Now, to resolve my immediate issue, and just because I will not be able
> to sleep well until I figure this out (yes, I am fixated on this).
> 
> I want this document structure:
> 
> Contents
> 
> 1.       Chapter                                   1-1
> 
> 1.1 Section                             1-2
> 
> 2.   Chapter 2                                  2-1
> 
>     2.1 Section                                 2-2
> 
> 
> Table of contents on page "i".
> Even/odd, each chapter starts on right page.
> Page number (as in 2-2) in top margin.
> Mark IV, Lua document.
> 
> I have tried hundreds of different combinations. If it cannot do this,
> the I will (with sadness) move on. I'm sure that it would take someone
> who understands this about 5 minutes to write (if that).
> 
> -Bryant
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