Re: docs

[Mari Voipio <mari.voipio@iki.fi>]

R. Bastian wrote:
> -. Is it necessary to know TeX ?

I assume it depends on what you are planning to do with ConTeXt. I've 
been using ConTeXt for at least five years now, but I've never touched 
TeX (nor LaTeX nor any others, just ConTeXt). I've got a vague idea what 
it is about and that's it.


Some points though:

- background in something else than WYSIWYG editing (What You See Is 
What You Get = Word, for example) helps a lot. Before I started with 
ConTeXt I'd already done my share of html and I've learned to do 
structured documents also in word processing (i.e. "mark it heading 1" 
instead of "make that big and black).

- I do ConTeXt pretty much with the "learn-as-you-go" philosophy and 
when I really have to learn something, I'm pretty determined; most of my 
ConTeXt usage is at work and if something needs to be done, it has to 
get done and I can't back off if it seems difficult first.
(It took me two days, lot of swearing and a few questions on this 
mailing list to achieve my first ConTeXt doc in Cyrillic, but I did it 
in the end. Now it is of course as easy as can be...)

- depends on the operationg system and user's backgrouns, too. Those 
who've used linux/mainframe are probably less likely to be upset by 
ConTeXt while your average Mac/Windows user may go crazy at the steep 
start of the learning curve; I'd done some unix and that definitely 
increased my tolerance.



There are days when I swear and yell and curse myself for going over 
from Word to ConTeXt. But on 9 days out of 10 I pat myself on the back 
for making the switch. Especially on those styles when MS Word defies 
all of my attempts to keep a document structurally styled...




That's my five cents,

Mari
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