From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.comp.tex.context/20244 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: CB Newsgroups: gmane.comp.tex.context Subject: Context, LaTeX, or an XML for academic writing? Date: Sat, 07 May 2005 12:58:19 +1000 Message-ID: <427C2ECB.4070808@gmail.com> Reply-To: mailing list for ConTeXt users NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1115582276 17723 80.91.229.2 (8 May 2005 19:57:56 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 8 May 2005 19:57:56 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl Sun May 08 21:57:54 2005 Return-path: 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 1DUrtk-0006cq-VM for gctc-ntg-context-518@m.gmane.org; Sun, 08 May 2005 21:57:09 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 29876127A0; Sun, 8 May 2005 22:04:20 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from ronja.ntg.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (ronja.vet.uu.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id 25262-01; Sun, 8 May 2005 22:04:19 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from ronja.vet.uu.nl (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 54B651278F; Sun, 8 May 2005 22:02:34 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from localhost (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3E303127C9 for ; Sat, 7 May 2005 04:58:25 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from ronja.ntg.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (ronja.vet.uu.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id 26632-06-2 for ; Sat, 7 May 2005 04:58:24 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from mail14.syd.optusnet.com.au (mail14.syd.optusnet.com.au [211.29.132.195]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2DB80127B2 for ; Sat, 7 May 2005 04:58:22 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from [210.49.127.36] (c210-49-127-36.rochd1.qld.optusnet.com.au [210.49.127.36]) (authenticated bits=0) by mail14.syd.optusnet.com.au (8.12.11/8.12.11) with ESMTP id j472wJHd008356 for ; Sat, 7 May 2005 12:58:20 +1000 User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.2 (Windows/20050317) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en Original-To: mailing list for ConTeXt users X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new at ntg.nl X-Mailman-Approved-At: Sun, 08 May 2005 22:02:30 +0200 X-BeenThere: ntg-context@ntg.nl X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 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: by amavisd-new at ntg.nl Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.comp.tex.context:20244 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.comp.tex.context:20244 Hi, I'm returning to graduate study after a few years out in the workplace. I'm a bit rusty on what good stuff there is out there for academic writing, and after a bit of research I've come up with: ConTeXt, LaTeX or an XML dtd (tbook or DocBook?) plus appropriate tools. I'm ruling out Word (having wrestled with it at work), and am reluctant to use anything similar like OpenOffice. I have used LaTeX for some things in the past. There will a little maths in my writing, but it's not central. Here are my main criteria for choice, in order of priority: 1) future-proofing. ie. I want my text to be always available to me forever, or until I die, whichever comes first. I take this to mean that I want the canonical form of my documents to be plain text of some sort. It also means that the system needs to be widely-used enough that it will be translateable into essential future formats as they arise. 2) semantic rather than layout-oriented markup as much as possible. I'm impatient with, and marginally interested in, layout. I'm very interested in what my text means. As much as possible, I want to set up my layouts early in the piece, and never think about them again. 3) relatively easy integration with some form of bibliographic database(ish) system (bibtex would do). 4) ability to produce pdf's, html, and rtf versions (for interoperation with Word-users) at least. 5) no need for me to write any code. I used to be a programmer, and when I left, promised myself, my wife, and my cat that I would never write a line of code again. I don't mind a bit of TeXish fiddling if *absolutely* necessary. ConTeXt seems to fit the bill for 1,3 and 5. I'm not sure about 4 (html? rtf?) or 2 (I haven't had a proper look at the nature of the available macros yet) . Would anyone with 1st hand knowledge of writing in academia care to comment either on the above or your own reasons for your choice of tools? I am doing my own research on all this stuff, but I know that until I get into the fray, there will be things I haven't thought of. Cheers, CB.