Re: Manual (English) Update soon?

[Douglas Philips <dgou@mac.com>]

On 2006 Dec 28, at 7:43 PM, Mojca Miklavec indited:
> Well, the ConTeXt manual is one of the most stable components of
> ConTeXt indeed ;)

:-)

> But consider it from the bright side:
> yes, it's still fully usable (after two years of using ConTeXt it's
> still hard to do anything without using it), everything mentioned
> there should still work (unless there has been some bug introduced in
> the mean time) and the major functionality has been there at that  
> time already.

Thanks, that is reassuring to hear.


> That's surely no excuse for not refreshing the manual, but there's no
> excuse for not sharing your experience on the wiki or web version of
> texshow either.

:-) Keeping the manuals up to date is hard work, which is a lot of  
why there is a push (in general) to have source generated docs, but  
that isn't easy either... I know.


> not to mention the changes in base LaTeX (documentstyle ->
> documentclass{article} -> Komma script) and the fact that most
> packages become unmaintained after they have been written.

True. And the worst part of it (having used LaTeX, and still on the  
precipice of using ConTeXt) is the incompatibilities and the lack of  
"ok, so which of these packages works with which others?" annoyance  
(which oft becomes frustration).


>> And so I am wondering if ConTeXt is still too fresh...
>
> It's always full of surprizes. But what do you mean with "too fresh"?
> If you're worried that your colleagues don't have the latest version
> of ConTeXt installed (and thus won't be able to compile your code)
> then you're probably right. (But if you want to use the latest packeg
> from LaTeX, there's even more chance that they won't have it. In
> ConTeXt you know at least that downloading one thing should suffice.)

Fair enough. I'm not sure, however, how that all plays out when it  
comes to using something like TeXLive (on a Mac, as if that matters)  
and the meta-issue of keeping a working TeX install coherent (and  
working)...

> Take it from the bright side: even if you were on the list, you
> wouldn't have time to follow it unless you were a student ;)

:-)  !!!


> And take it from the bright side again: tetex on most linux
> distributions is just as old as the manual, so you wouldn't be  
> missing much ;)

Well, that is an interesting argument. Fortunately my TeX and LaTeX  
usage has been such that I haven't run into a lot of bugs, so the  
drumbeat of upgrade-upgrade-upgrade-upgrade has been too soft to  
hear. Usually what drives a change is wanting to use a layout which  
doesn't fit the LaTeX direction. I don't make books or academic  
papers, so I'm not in the center of the fairway, heck, I'm not even  
in the weeds, I'm in a bowling alley! :-)

> In my opinion "It makes no sense to wait for solar-energy car before
> you start doing your driver's licence. Unless you intend to design or
> produce cars, you shouldn't even notice the difference."

Thanks I deeply wish to not notice the difference!

	--Doug