Re: ConTeXt on the Mac (TexShop). Problem of a newbie

[Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl>]

On 1/10/2013 12:19 PM, Martin Schröder wrote:
> 2013/1/10 Keith J. Schultz <keithjschultz@web.de>:
>> I am kind of confused about the relationship between luatex and ConTeXt.
>
> http://www.tug.org/levels.html
>
> ConTeXt MkIV needs LuaTeX.

That's a somewhat confusing description.

(1) Context is just a format, so it should be mentioned as format.

(2) We call all instances context, i.e. we don't combine engine names 
with 'context' so there is no 'pdfcontext', although one could do that.

(3) As there are language dependent user interfaces, we have more 
formats (cont-en, cont-nl, ...).

(4) We use a management script to run the engine with the context 
format. Reasons for this are: we need to manage multiple runs, we might 
need to call intermediate programs (in mkii for instance we need to sort 
indices).

(5) This also permits us to present to user with an engine independent 
call to context. In mkii we had 'texexec' (on top of a more generic 
script manager called texmfstart), in mkiv we have 'context' (and again 
a script manager called mtxrun).

Now, to come to luatex: this project is quite related to context as it 
all started in the context community. We also use context for testing 
and exploring new functionality. For this we use mkiv/mkvi which is a 
rewrite of context using the full potential of luatex so that we can go 
beyond what traditional tex engines can do. We explicitly have chosen 
for a lua + tex combination so that we don't have to hardcode solutions 
in the engine (macro packages have too many conflicting demands anyway) 
and are more future proof.

Given that mkii is frozen, and given that type1 fonts are sort of 
obsolete (context has always been an early adopter of lm and gyre 
fonts), and given that utf is the way to go (so no messing with input 
and font encodings any more), and given some more reasons, in practice 
users will no longer use pdftex and/or xetex but luatex. In that sense 
context depends on luatex and also keep the development of that engine 
going.

The philosophy of context is that by having most functionality in the 
core, users can rather easy create their own styles (the average style 
has not that many lines anyway). I'm always sort of puzzled when I see 
remarks that context is close to plain, as I cannot see where that 
conclusion comes from. The whole reason that context exists is that I 
didn't want to hack around in low level style files and deal with funny 
commands having @ in their names.

Hans

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                                           Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
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