Best version of ConTeXt

Best version of ConTeXt

[Tom]

What would be the best version of ConTeXt to recommend to a friend who
writes novels on a PC running Windows? The person has no programming skills.
He would probably require some assistance installing Tex-Live or whatever
and would need a stable version because he couldn't manage frequent updates.
Problems would far outweigh additional features for him.

Tom Benjey
717-258-9733 voice
717-243-0074 fax
Twitter: @TomBenjey






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Re: Best version of ConTeXt

[Vnpenguin]

On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 02:03, Tom <Tom@tuxedo-press.com> wrote:
> What would be the best version of ConTeXt to recommend to a friend who
> writes novels on a PC running Windows? The person has no programming skills.
> He would probably require some assistance installing Tex-Live or whatever
> and would need a stable version because he couldn't manage frequent updates.
> Problems would far outweigh additional features for him.
>

ConTeXt is under development, so IMHO there is no "stable" version.
If you need it you have to live with it, no choice :-)

Maybe ConTeXt minimal (http://wiki.contextgarden.net/ConTeXt_Minimals) ?
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Re: Best version of ConTeXt

[luigi scarso]

On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 9:58 AM, Vnpenguin <vnpenguin@vnoss.org> wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 02:03, Tom <Tom@tuxedo-press.com> wrote:
>> What would be the best version of ConTeXt to recommend to a friend who
>> writes novels on a PC running Windows? The person has no programming skills.
>> He would probably require some assistance installing Tex-Live or whatever
>> and would need a stable version because he couldn't manage frequent updates.
>> Problems would far outweigh additional features for him.
>>
>
> ConTeXt is under development, so IMHO there is no "stable" version.
> If you need it you have to live with it, no choice :-)
>
> Maybe ConTeXt minimal (http://wiki.contextgarden.net/ConTeXt_Minimals) ?
ConTeXt mkii is *stable*
ConTeXt mkiv is under very active development,  so it's unstable --- but usable.

Both come with minimals.


-- 
luigi
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Re: Best version of ConTeXt

[Mojca Miklavec]

On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 02:03, Tom wrote:
> What would be the best version of ConTeXt to recommend to a friend who
> writes novels on a PC running Windows? The person has no programming skills.
> He would probably require some assistance installing Tex-Live or whatever
> and would need a stable version because he couldn't manage frequent updates.
> Problems would far outweigh additional features for him.

TeX Live 2010 should work fine.

Mojca
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Re: Best version of ConTeXt

[Taco Hoekwater]

Mojca Miklavec wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 02:03, Tom wrote:
>> What would be the best version of ConTeXt to recommend to a friend who
>> writes novels on a PC running Windows? The person has no programming skills.
>> He would probably require some assistance installing Tex-Live or whatever
>> and would need a stable version because he couldn't manage frequent updates.
>> Problems would far outweigh additional features for him.
> 
> TeX Live 2010 should work fine.

Current physical ETA is September, btw. For those of you that are not on
the tex-live mailing list.

Best wishes,
Taco
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Re: Best version of ConTeXt

[Tom]

-----Original Message-----
From: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl [mailto:ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl] On
Behalf Of Mojca Miklavec
Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2010 6:14 AM
To: mailing list for ConTeXt users
Subject: Re: [NTG-context] Best version of ConTeXt

On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 02:03, Tom wrote:
> What would be the best version of ConTeXt to recommend to a friend who
> writes novels on a PC running Windows? The person has no programming
skills.
> He would probably require some assistance installing Tex-Live or whatever
> and would need a stable version because he couldn't manage frequent
updates.
> Problems would far outweigh additional features for him.

TeX Live 2010 should work fine.

Mojca


I don't expect there will be much ConTeXt activity from our Dutch friends
today due to the big game, but I will risk a question anyway.

From which site should Americans download Tex Live 2010? Minimals only?

The Wiki suggests that command-line and GUI installers can be downloaded
from there and that either a stable or beta version can be selected from
either of the installers. Is this the recommended method for non-technical
types to get Tex Live? I assume that the beta version is the latest 2010
version, bugs and all, and that the stable version is the one suggested by
Mojca and is close to the one that Taco says will go physical in September.
Will anything else, such as Ruby, be required? 

Tom Benjey
717-258-9733 voice
717-243-0074 fax
Twitter: @TomBenjey


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Re: Best version of ConTeXt

[Alan BRASLAU]

On Thursday 08 July 2010 13:54:57 Tom wrote:
> 
> I don't expect there will be much ConTeXt activity from our Dutch friends
> today due to the big game, but I will risk a question anyway.

The BIG game will be on Sunday.

> 
> From which site should Americans download Tex Live 2010? Minimals only?
> 

At least the Americans went much further than the French!

Alan
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Re: Best version of ConTeXt

[Mojca Miklavec]

On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 13:54, Tom wrote:
>
> From which site should Americans download Tex Live 2010? Minimals only?

http://www.tug.org/texlive/pretest.html
http://www.tug.org/texlive/mirmon/

> I assume that the beta version is the latest 2010
> version, bugs and all, and that the stable version is the one suggested by
> Mojca and is close to the one that Taco says will go physical in September.

Yes, Taco only said that DVDs will be sent to members in September.

> Will anything else, such as Ruby, be required?

Ruby is not needed for MkIV, but if he is planning to use MKII, you'll
want to install Ruby anyway.

Mojca
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Re: Best version of ConTeXt

[Martin Schröder]

2010/7/8 Mojca Miklavec <mojca.miklavec.lists@gmail.com>:
> Yes, Taco only said that DVDs will be sent to members in September.

Images will be available in August.

Best
   Martin
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Re: Best version of ConTeXt

[Tom]

-----Original Message-----
From: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl [mailto:ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl] On
Behalf Of Mojca Miklavec
Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2010 9:21 AM
To: mailing list for ConTeXt users
Subject: Re: [NTG-context] Best version of ConTeXt

On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 13:54, Tom wrote:
>
> From which site should Americans download Tex Live 2010? Minimals only?

http://www.tug.org/texlive/pretest.html
http://www.tug.org/texlive/mirmon/

> I assume that the beta version is the latest 2010
> version, bugs and all, and that the stable version is the one suggested by
> Mojca and is close to the one that Taco says will go physical in
September.

Yes, Taco only said that DVDs will be sent to members in September.

> Will anything else, such as Ruby, be required?

Ruby is not needed for MkIV, but if he is planning to use MKII, you'll
want to install Ruby anyway.

Mojca

I get very confused by all the different versions. For starters, what is Tex
Live? Is it the full blown Context or is it something else? The TUG site has
Tex Live 2009 which I assume is a stable version that is distributed on DVDs
to TUG members. I get the impression that other Context "compilers" for lack
of a better term exist and that Context Minimals is a stripped down version
of a more powerful one. How far off track am I?



Tom Benjey
717-258-9733 voice
717-243-0074 fax
Twitter: @TomBenjey


 


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Re: Best version of ConTeXt

[Yury G. Kudryashov]

Tom wrote:

> I get very confused by all the different versions. For starters, what is
> Tex Live? Is it the full blown Context or is it something else?
TeXLive is the full blown TeX distribution. It includes LaTeX, ConTeXt etc.
> The TUG
> site has Tex Live 2009 which I assume is a stable version that is
> distributed on DVDs to TUG members. I get the impression that other
> Context "compilers" for lack of a better term exist and that Context
> Minimals is a stripped down version of a more powerful one. How far off
> track am I?
Context Minimals is "context-only" TeX distribution. If you don't need 
LaTeX, you can use minimals, else install TeXLive 2010 (context Mark IV is 
broken in TeXLive 2009).

P.S.: Do you use "forward" instead of "reply"? Or why your e-mail agent 
doesn't prepend "> " to the quoted strings?
-- 
Yury G. Kudryashov

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Re: Best version of ConTeXt

[Henning Hraban Ramm]

Am 2010-07-08 um 20:54 schrieb Tom:
> I get very confused by all the different versions.

You asked for the "best version", so we supposed you'd know several.

> For starters, what is Tex
> Live? Is it the full blown Context or is it something else? The TUG  
> site has
> Tex Live 2009 which I assume is a stable version that is distributed  
> on DVDs
> to TUG members. I get the impression that other Context "compilers"  
> for lack
> of a better term exist and that Context Minimals is a stripped down  
> version
> of a more powerful one. How far off track am I?

There are only 2 different versions of ConTeXt, called Mark II and  
Mark IV (MkII, MkIV). They are always distributed together and still  
share a lot of code.
MkII is stable, MkIV is the development version with several enhanced  
features and a completely new font handling.

There are 3 different engines for TeX that work with ConTeXt: pdfTeX,  
XeTeX and LuaTeX. MkIV works only with LuaTeX, MkII with any. Font  
setups (typescripts) differ per engine.

There are several distributions of TeX that contain ConTeXt, the most  
notable are TeX Live (jointly published by most TeX User Groups of the  
world) and MikTeX (Windows only). If you don't need LaTeX, we suggest  
our ConTeXt minimals distribution - at least for MkIV, because it's  
always the most up-to-date one.
"Minimals" is in no way stripped down (even if it was meant to be a  
"bare bones" ConTeXt distro), but contains even several tools and free  
fonts.
Most distributions contain all engines.

MkII ist called by "texexec" (a Ruby script, i.e. you need Ruby  
installed), MkIV ist called by "context" (a Lua script, directly  
executed by LuaTeX).


Greetlings from Lake Constance!
Hraban
---
http://www.fiee.net/texnique/
http://wiki.contextgarden.net
https://www.cacert.org (I'm an assurer)

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Re: Best version of ConTeXt

[Tom]

-----Original Message-----
From: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl [mailto:ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl] On
Behalf Of Henning Hraban Ramm
Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2010 5:11 PM
To: mailing list for ConTeXt users
Subject: Re: [NTG-context] Best version of ConTeXt

Am 2010-07-08 um 20:54 schrieb Tom:
> I get very confused by all the different versions.

You asked for the "best version", so we supposed you'd know several.

> For starters, what is Tex
> Live? Is it the full blown Context or is it something else? The TUG  
> site has
> Tex Live 2009 which I assume is a stable version that is distributed  
> on DVDs
> to TUG members. I get the impression that other Context "compilers"  
> for lack
> of a better term exist and that Context Minimals is a stripped down  
> version
> of a more powerful one. How far off track am I?

There are only 2 different versions of ConTeXt, called Mark II and  
Mark IV (MkII, MkIV). They are always distributed together and still  
share a lot of code.
MkII is stable, MkIV is the development version with several enhanced  
features and a completely new font handling.

There are 3 different engines for TeX that work with ConTeXt: pdfTeX,  
XeTeX and LuaTeX. MkIV works only with LuaTeX, MkII with any. Font  
setups (typescripts) differ per engine.

There are several distributions of TeX that contain ConTeXt, the most  
notable are TeX Live (jointly published by most TeX User Groups of the  
world) and MikTeX (Windows only). If you don't need LaTeX, we suggest  
our ConTeXt minimals distribution - at least for MkIV, because it's  
always the most up-to-date one.
"Minimals" is in no way stripped down (even if it was meant to be a  
"bare bones" ConTeXt distro), but contains even several tools and free  
fonts.
Most distributions contain all engines.

MkII ist called by "texexec" (a Ruby script, i.e. you need Ruby  
installed), MkIV ist called by "context" (a Lua script, directly  
executed by LuaTeX).


Greetlings from Lake Constance!
Hraban
---
http://www.fiee.net/texnique/
http://wiki.contextgarden.net
https://www.cacert.org (I'm an assurer)

Thank you for being so concise, Hraban. This helps a lot.

Tom Benjey
717-258-9733 voice
717-243-0074 fax
Twitter: @TomBenjey



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Re: Best version of ConTeXt

[Mojca Miklavec]

On 2010-07-08, Yury G. Kudryashov wrote:
>
> Context Minimals is "context-only" TeX distribution. If you don't need
> LaTeX, you can use minimals, else install TeXLive 2010 (context Mark IV is
> broken in TeXLive 2009).

But it is true that minimals sometimes break. TL won't change for at
least a year and installing context scheme (or minimal scheme with
context package) doesn't install LaTeX and is hardly bigger than
minimals with all the engines and fonts.

ConTeXt in MikTeX doesn't work any more, at least not until version 2.9 is out.

Mojca
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Re: Best version of ConTeXt

[Taco Hoekwater]

On 07/08/2010 11:10 PM, Henning Hraban Ramm wrote:
>
> There are only 2 different versions of ConTeXt, called Mark II and Mark
> IV (MkII, MkIV). They are always distributed together and still share a
> lot of code.
> MkII is stable, MkIV is the development version with several enhanced
> features and a completely new font handling.

I've added a FAQ entry based on this reply:

http://wiki.contextgarden.net/FAQ#How_does_ConTeXt_versioning_work.3F

Best wishes,
Taco
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