Re: seeking ConTeXt code

[Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl>]

"Ed L. Cashin" wrote:

> I have been playing with this, and it seems to work, but it is has a
> much longer execution time compared to, e.g., psbook.

Indeed, but the difference is that here we are dealing with typesetting.
I'm thinking of adding features that act on the spread and so, in which
case psbook is less adequate. Another advantage of the tex method is
that is is pretty save on colors.  

> It seems that the "--pdfarrange" method is significantly faster.  Is
> that what you'd expect?

Sure, because here we only copy already typeset stuff. Both have their
pros and cons. 

> > Now, the main problem is that arrangement takes place in the last
> > stage.  This means running with the arrangement commented and then
> > run a last one with the arrangement. The reson behind this is that
> > otherwise all the references and indexes and lists get spoiled (page
> > 5 can be output before page 1).
> 
> I haven't been using documents that have references and lists in my
> experiments.  Are you saying that the --pdfarrange method will
> generate documents with incorrect indices, references, etc.?

No, but it will definitely loose all annotations. This no problem
because we're dealing with printed matter. In general, pdf inclusions
will loose annotations (there was a time distiller included them, which
could give nice effects: cropboxes migrating from illustrations to the
main document). 

This is one reason why we for instance wrote the flowchart module. That
way we could add hyperlinks in cells (and more) which isnearly
impossible with imported graphics. Expect more of this stuff in
context.  

> > When you use a5 on a4, you can use texexec. Just set up your document
> > for a5, and run texexec:
> >
> >   texexec --paper=a5a4 --print=up yourfile
> >
> > will run context untill all refs are sorted out, and then apply a last
> > pass doing the reshuffel.
> >
> > I can add a feature to texexec (--arrange) that does the 'commenting'
> > (sort of), so that one has full controll in the source. I'll give this
> > some thought.
> 
> What would be the advantage of the texexec --arrange option versus
> putting the pagination commands in the source?

It saves you commenting the arrangement out when doing normal runs,
although you could say: 

\startmode[arrange]

  all kind of setups 

\stopmode

... and for the final run: 

  texexec --mode=arrange --once 

etc etc. (It's not the easiest context things you've started with)

> I noticed that a while back Taco Hoekwater posted to the pdftex list a
> method that consisted of just directly noodling with the page number
> order in the PDF document itself.  You warned that the number of bytes
> has to stay the same, but it sounded like it would work.

Very dangerous, when 3 changes into 40 and 40 into 3 thereis a big
change that many objects have pointers one off. 

> That wouldn't work in this case, would it?  I'm putting the pages 2
> per sheet of paper.

Right. 

> > Concerning the manual, we will start uploading soon on a chapter by
> > chapter base. The first 4 chapters are in typesetting stage (chapter 4
> > is what you need).
> 
> Whoo!!  That is very good news!

(after eurotex ...) 

Hans

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                                          Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
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