Hello,


  I am trying to typeset old books and I chose to keep close to the
original typography.
  I have attached two images of what I try to mimic an I try to sum up
the requirements hereinbelow. Any advice is appreciated.

=================
1) It must work when starting from a new line as well as when starting
from the middle of the current line. 2 different environments are
allowed.

2) The environnement is wrapped in guillemets.

3a) There must be no extra space before the opening guillemet when
starting from the middle of the current line.

3b) The must be no extra space after the closing guillemet.

4) The quote repetition symbol must appear in the beginning of every
line, except the first one.

5) Paragraphs should be automatically indented. Manual indentation is
bearable.

6a) When there is an indentation, the quote repetition symbol must be
indented too.

6b) When the bloc starts on a new line, the opening guillemet must be
indented.

7) The quote repetition symbol must be a setup parameter of the
environment, or easily modifiable within the environment definition.
(in the example images, it is a *closing* guillemet, but in other books
it can be an *opening* guillemet).

8) This environment must work within footnotes too.
=================


  So far, I have tried to use line numbering to achieve this result.
But there are several problems:
-- extra space before beginning of bloc,
-- quote repetition symbol appears on the first line even when it the
beginning of the environment,
-- no automatic indentation,
-- no indentation of quote repetition symbol,
-- lines overflow in the right margin (seems that the "width" used for
the numbering is not substracted from the text width),
-- no effect in footnotes,

and I am not unsure whether carrying on tweaking line numbering is the
way to go.


  Here is a minimal(?) example showing the different possibilities and
troubles:

=================
\setuppapersize[A4]
\enableregime[utf-8]
\mainlanguage[fr]
\language[fr]
\setcharacterspacing[frenchpunctuation]
\setupindenting[first,yes,medium]

\definestartstop[bloccitel][before={
   \setuplinenumbering[location=text,command={»\gobbleoneargument},width=.75em]
   \startlinenumbering
   \setupindenting[first,yes,medium]
   «
},
  after={»\stoplinenumbering}]


\starttext

First check: «normal spacing of guillemets».

Second check: a normal paragraph, to show {\bf normal right margin
limit}. \input tufte

Let's start with a quote block on a {\bf new line}:

\startbloccitel
First paragraph ({\bf quote repetition symbol is not wanted
here}):\input tufte

Second paragraph ({\bf not automatically indented}):\input tufte

\indentation Third paragraph with manual indentation({\bf quote
repetition symbol is not indented}):\input tufte
\stopbloccitel

Now, a quote block starting just there, {\bf in the middle of a line}
({\bf space after colon is too big}):\startbloccitel\input tufte

\input tufte
\stopbloccitel . This a bit of text at the end of the quotation. It
{\bf seems fine}.

And let's call a {\bf footnote}\footnote{\startbloccitel\input tufte

\input tufte
\stopbloccitel}. Unfortunately {\bf no quote repetition symbol will
appear in it}.

\stoptext
=================


  If needed, here is the Context I use :

=================
stephane@cuisine ~/test/ctx/quote_block $ context --version

mtx-context     | ConTeXt Process Management 0.60
mtx-context     |
mtx-context     | main context
file: /opt/context/tex/texmf-context/tex/context/base/context.mkiv
mtx-context     | current version: 2014.03.27 20:04
=================


Faithfully yours,
  Stéphane.