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

[Pavneet Arora <pavneet_arora@waroc.com>]

Hans,

This is a most lucid explanation.  I have been waiting for this myself.

To quote the great American philosopher, Corporal Radar O'Reilly, from the 
television show of the 1970s, M*A*S*H:

Ah, Bark! [He was instructed to say Ah, Baaacccch! by Hawkeye Pierce]

I apologise in advance for this most peculiar and culturally specific bit of 
history.

Regards.


> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2013 12:58:43 +0100
> From: Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl>
> To: mailing list for ConTeXt users <ntg-context@ntg.nl>
> Subject: Re: [NTG-context] ConTeXt on the Mac (TexShop). Problem of a
> 	newbie
> Message-ID: <50EEACF3.9040602@wxs.nl>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> On 1/10/2013 12:19 PM, Martin Schr?der 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
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>                                             Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
>                 Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
>       tel: 038 477 53 69 | voip: 087 875 68 74 | www.pragma-ade.com
>                                                | www.pragma-pod.nl
> -----------------------------------------------------------------



-- 
-----
- Pavneet Arora

Waroc Fine Audio + Custom Home Cinema
www.waroc.com  416.937.WAROC (9276)

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