Re: ConTeXt standalone - in what situations is it better?

[john Culleton <John@wexfordpress.com>]

On Thu, 24 Oct 2013 14:57:35 +0200
Mojca Miklavec <mojca.miklavec.lists@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Oct 24, 2013 at 2:13 PM, Lars Huttar wrote:
> >
> > The other issue for me with Standalone is that the only version
> > listed for Windows is "W32TeX". When I go to the web page for that
> > platform, I don't see any information about what W32TeX is; just
> > how to install it. It sounds like it's specific to 32-bit systems,
> > and mine is 64-bit. But I suppose in that regard it's no different
> > from TeXLive -- the executables are 32-bit but they run fine on
> > 64-bit systems.
> 
> http://w32tex.org/
> 
> It's another distribution created by a Japanese guru for compiling
> binaries with Visual Studio. You don't need to install W32TeX
> yourself, but those binaries are used in both TeX Live and ConTeXt
> distribution, so you basically get the same binaries (only maybe
> slightly newer version with ConTeXt distribution). And yes, the
> binaries work fine on a 64-bit system. Since recently there are 64-bit
> binaries available, but I didn't manage to fix the scripts yet to
> fetch those binaries when applicable.
> 
> > Does anybody have advice for me on other reasons for switching from
> > TeXLive to ConTeXt Standalone, or reasons not to?
> 
> If TeX Live works for you, there is no real need to switch, but if you
> ever need a patch or some new functionality, it would be easier to use
> the latest version.
> 
> Mojca
> 

There is a problem with using Texlive and a problem with using
Standalone. In the simplefonts area in particular documentation and
examples may rely on changes that weren't in place when Texlive 2103
was put together. This is a rapidly developing area. 

The problem with Standalone is that the full range of fonts found with
Texlive is not available. Standalone has 258 otf fonts and TexLive
has 508 otf fonts. So I am opting for TeXLive, although I have both.

Another dfficulty is that many of the examples for simplefonts
are apparently developed on a Windows system and I use Linux. Font
names are different.
  


-- 
John Culleton
Wexford Press
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