From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.comp.tex.context/31120 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: gnwiii@gmail.com Newsgroups: gmane.comp.tex.context Subject: Re: A new manual Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2006 11:19:03 -0300 Message-ID: <22af238a0609290719l4ceed250m171555be4bf793e3@mail.gmail.com> References: <200609280920.02364.john@wexfordpress.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 1159539573 7826 80.91.229.2 (29 Sep 2006 14:19:33 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2006 14:19:33 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl Fri Sep 29 16:19:31 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 1GTJD2-0007UV-Ad for gctc-ntg-context-518@m.gmane.org; Fri, 29 Sep 2006 16:19:24 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3EB4B1FF0C; Fri, 29 Sep 2006 16:19:23 +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 02374-02; Fri, 29 Sep 2006 16:19:16 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from ronja.vet.uu.nl (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6F6421FF06; Fri, 29 Sep 2006 16:19:16 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 49C5D1FF06 for ; Fri, 29 Sep 2006 16:19:11 +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 01404-06-2 for ; Fri, 29 Sep 2006 16:19:05 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from ug-out-1314.google.com (ug-out-1314.google.com [66.249.92.172]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with SMTP id 2C6851FF02 for ; Fri, 29 Sep 2006 16:19:03 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: by ug-out-1314.google.com with SMTP id e2so283108ugf for ; Fri, 29 Sep 2006 07:19:03 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: by 10.67.119.5 with SMTP id w5mr87659ugm; Fri, 29 Sep 2006 07:19:03 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: by 10.67.102.15 with HTTP; Fri, 29 Sep 2006 07:19:03 -0700 (PDT) Original-To: "mailing list for ConTeXt users" In-Reply-To: <200609280920.02364.john@wexfordpress.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:31120 Archived-At: 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). 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. -- George N. White III Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia