From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.comp.tex.context/57672 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Taco Hoekwater Newsgroups: gmane.comp.tex.context Subject: Re: The ConTeXt book Date: Sat, 03 Apr 2010 08:54:54 +0200 Message-ID: <4BB6E63E.1060700@elvenkind.com> References: <20100401170822.GF29608@phare.normalesup.org> <20100402094904.GD24723@phare.normalesup.org> <4BB5C219.1010408@wxs.nl> <4BB5D7B5.4040101@wxs.nl> <4BB5E238.3090505@elvenkind.com> <7E4F4293-EDF5-453A-BA65-88ACE2CE6B89@gundla.ch> <20100402223249.GG4991@verizon.net> <20100403073736.7c463625@gaura-nitai> Reply-To: mailing list for ConTeXt users NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; Format="flowed" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1270277709 9865 80.91.229.12 (3 Apr 2010 06:55:09 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 3 Apr 2010 06:55:09 +0000 (UTC) To: mailing list for ConTeXt users Original-X-From: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl Sat Apr 03 08:55:05 2010 Return-path: Envelope-to: gctc-ntg-context-518@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from balder.ntg.nl ([195.12.62.10]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1NxxG5-0000eo-CK for gctc-ntg-context-518@m.gmane.org; Sat, 03 Apr 2010 08:55:05 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by balder.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3C8EEC9C04; Sat, 3 Apr 2010 08:55:03 +0200 (CEST) X-Virus-Scanned: Debian amavisd-new at balder.ntg.nl Original-Received: from balder.ntg.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (balder.ntg.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id hvpCR0izemX9; Sat, 3 Apr 2010 08:54:59 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from balder.ntg.nl (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by balder.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3B23CC9C7E; Sat, 3 Apr 2010 08:54:59 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by balder.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 778DEC9C7E for ; Sat, 3 Apr 2010 08:54:58 +0200 (CEST) X-Virus-Scanned: Debian amavisd-new at balder.ntg.nl Original-Received: from balder.ntg.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (balder.ntg.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id NvjFwbk1ZElQ for ; Sat, 3 Apr 2010 08:54:55 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from smtp-vbr15.xs4all.nl (smtp-vbr15.xs4all.nl [194.109.24.35]) by balder.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id B87E1C9C04 for ; Sat, 3 Apr 2010 08:54:55 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from [192.168.178.26] (boo.demon.nl [83.163.247.99]) (authenticated bits=0) by smtp-vbr15.xs4all.nl (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id o336stQn075713 for ; Sat, 3 Apr 2010 08:54:55 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from taco@elvenkind.com) User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.23 (X11/20090822) In-Reply-To: <20100403073736.7c463625@gaura-nitai> X-Virus-Scanned: by XS4ALL Virus Scanner X-BeenThere: ntg-context@ntg.nl X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.12 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 Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.comp.tex.context:57672 Archived-At: Hi, Gour wrote: > > Russell> As a tech writer for almost 30 years, and someone just getting > Russell> into Context, i am sorry to hear that was a joke! > > Just see the sad affair of Context's docs so that the 'book' is topic for > the April's 1st joke. :-( > If it wouldn't be so sad, it would be funny... Personally, I think it is a sad joke that I started a community project to update the reference manual after a lot of complaints about the documentation but over four years down the road the actual community turns out to have a population closely approximating one. > At the moment I'm looking to learn jQuery and, rest assured, there are > several books to choose from. If you could convince mozilla to adopt ConTeXt, I am sure there would be a lot of books within half a year. Have a closer look on books on 'hot topics' like jQuery and you'll see that almost none of these books are written by the inventors themselves. Granted, often the first (and sometimes the best) books are by the inventors, but the *number* of books on a subject just gives an indication of the book market size, nothing more. > However, when I ask somewhere about the support for ConTeXt I'm > getting answers like: "This is the project which has only 5 or 6 > users. Who actually uses it? Use LaTeX!" :-( The availability of ConTeXt books will not automatically create more users (nor even automatically create readers, for that matter). > This raises another concern and that is: what is the future of ConTeXt > is Hans "get hit by the bus"? (Of course, we even do not want to think > about it...) The answer to this question is quite obvious if you have read Douglas Adams' books: the bus will think about the impact of its actions on the universe for a moment. Then, deeply immersed in gut-wrenching shame, it will travel back in time half a minute and push its own breaks for an emergency stop. Best wishes, Taco ___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________