Re: Long compile time

[Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl>]

David Arnold wrote:

> 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?

It all depends on where your project / product files go. Concerning
figures, you can set up the directories used with 

  \setupexternalfigures[directory={commaseparatedlist}] 

like: 

  \setupexternalfigures[directory={mps,eps,pdf}] 

For tex and other files, you can set the directories with:  

  \usepath[commaseparatedlist]

like: 

  \usepath[book,anotherbook,yetanotherbook]

To prevent problems with clashing files (think of context picking up a
tuo file from another path because your tex does recursive search)
depending on the file searched, context restricts the search. Figure
files for instance are search on the current path or one of the global
paths as set up (unless one of these is enabled). Environments are
searched upto three levels down (up) the tree, which means that you can
put shared environemnts, abbreviation definitions, etc in a parent
path.  Context really does its best to limit the search time. 

Hans

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                                          Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
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