Re: Long compile time

[David Arnold <darnold@northcoast.com>]

All,

I have now had several people make a project suggestion as a means of
assembling the various pieces of a large task. Hans has described the
procedure below. I would like to give this a try, but I have a few
questions before restructuring my documents.

1. Do you recommend that I pursue this technique? I think yes?

2. Here's how I like to structure my project directories;

f:\book
f:\book\chap1
f:\book\chap2
f:\book\chap3
f:\book\chap4
f:\book\chap5
f:\book\chap6
f:\book\chap7
f:\book\chap8
f:\book\chap9
f:\book\chap10

The directory f:\book contains my master document, master.tex. Each of the
directories f:\book\chapi contains a file called chapi.tex and all of the
files needed to construct that file, *.eps, *.pdf, *.m (matlab files), *.mp
(Metapost files), etc. Each directory has a SIGNIFICANT number of files.
This is how I like to work, because chunking everything into one directory
would quickly become unmanageable, at least for me.

Now, knowing these parameters, am I still a candidate to use this
project--product approach?

At 12:40 PM 8/29/99 +0200, you wrote:
>David Arnold wrote:
>
>> For me, the most frustrating thing about ConTeXt seems to be the long time
>> it takes to compile. I've read the texexex.pdf file and there are some nice
>> hints in there to reduce the compile time. I still have two questions.
>
>That's the sacrifice for a parameter driven package. 
> 
>> 1. Can I reduce to a minimum the compile time by entering a comment in the
>> first line of my file, something akin to
>> 
>> %output=pdf
>> 
>> that I use frequently? If this can be done, what is an optimal comment line
>> for limiting the compile time?
>
>Sometimes texexec --fast runs a bit faster. To prevent multiple runs,
>say 
>
>  texexex --once .....
> 
>> 2. Suppose I have a master document with
>> 
>> \input chap1
>> \input chap2
>> \input chap3
>> 
>> etc. Suppose I am working in chap3.tex and I only want to compile chap3. Of
>> course, I can comment out
>> 
>> %\input chap1
>> %\input chap2
>> 
>> but then I lose the correct numbering of pages, chapters, etc. Is there a
>> better procedure?
>
>A rather old feature of context is project support (pre texexec time,
>when we were making collections of educational materials):
>
>(project file: course.tex)
>
>\startproject course 
>
>  \environment commonsetups 
>
>  \product     book 
>  \product     exercises 
>  \product     answers 
>  \product     examn
>
>\stopproject 
>
>(environment file: commonsetups.tex)
>
>\startenvironment commonsetups
>
>  all kind of (layout) setups 
>
>\stopenvironment 
>
>(product file: book.tex) 
>
>\startproduct book
>
>  \project     course
>
>  \environment booksetups 
>
>  \component   chap-1
>  \component   chap-2
>
>\stopproduct 
>
>(component file: chap-1.tex)
>
>\startcomponent chap-1
>
>  \project course 
>  \product book 
>
>  ... chapter 1 ... 
>
>\stopcomponent 
>
>etc etc 
>
>Now you can say: 
>
>texexec book 
>texexec chap-1
>texexec chap-2
>
>etc
>
>It is possible to set up context in such a way that the book refs etc
>migrate to the individual chapters, but this only makes sense in special
>cases. 
>
>Maybe this relieves the pain of speed. 
>
>Hans
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>                                          Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
>              Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
>      tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.nl
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>