Re: Context, LaTeX, or an XML for academic writing?

[Matthias Weber <matweber@indiana.edu>]

Hi Tobias,

here is my recommendation:

Ask somebody in your field who is really good at TeX for the LaTeX 
sources of his/her thesis,
and use them as templates. Spend as little time as possible thinking 
about
layout and as much as you can about content.

You only will have the energy  to strive for excellence in layout after 
you have
had the satisfaction of creating content worthy of it.

There are also more worldly considerations: To preserve content, it 
helps if the
content is written in a well-supported, rarely changing format.
For instance, the arxiv preprint server currently accepts among TeX 
dialects only
TeX/LaTeX/AMSTeX/AMSLaTeX but not ConTeXt (you could submit PDF, 
though).
Also, if you ever write a joint paper, chances are high that you'll use 
LaTeX.

Even though I have been using ConTeXt now for over a year for my 
personal
projects, I am almost forced to use LaTeX for collaboration and journal
publication.

Hope that helps,

Matthias


On May 14, 2005, at 7:45 AM, Tobias Wolf wrote:

> Dear NTG-context denizens,
>
> today I went to work to make up my mind about whether it would be a
> good idea to go ahead and produce my BSc. Thesis with ConTeXt.
> It's clear, I'm very much attracted to it's approach, I do like the
> syntax and the focus on PDF output (I never used DVI before) et cetera
> pp.
> This is my first post to the list and I'm happy that CB just
> formulated my main requirements. The hard contraints are certainly 2,
> 3 and 5.
> I've seen Hrabans' ciee juxtaposition of ConTeXt and LaTeX, and after
> searching the list I am not sure whether going for a KOMA class
> wouldn't be better considering that I definitely don't have time
> develop my own ConTeXt environment this time.
>
> I've also seen the MS thesis of Han The Thanh. It's good. But I would
> need something more suited for natural sciences that accomodates
> plenty of figures and references. Also I would like to "cloak" my
> thesis by avoiding Computer Modern.
>
> Do ready-made "academic templates" by one of you experts exist - or
> do you dissuade me from "just using" ConTeXt for for writing academic
> literature?
>
> - Tobias
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