Am Montag, 05.01.04, um 05:52 Uhr (Europe/Zurich) schrieb Tyler Eaves:
> One file to act with all the layout commands.

Use an "environment" file of the project structure.

> One file for each class periods notes

Use an "component"  file of the project structure.

> (I'll write a little ruby or python scribt to geneate the appropriate 
> \inputs in the main file)

Better use components and a "product" or "project" as main file.

More verbose:
A project is (may be) the main file for everything that uses the same 
layout (e.g. a book series).
The environment describes this layout (like a LaTeX class).
A product is a major part of the project (e.g. one book).
A component is a minor part of the product (e.g. chapter).

None of these has a special syntax, only \startsomething ... 
\stopsomething
It's explained in "ConTeXt an excursion", AFAIR

I use the attached Perl script to make my project elements (it's not 
sophisticated, but usable).
My usual file prefixes are hardcoded (env_, project_, prd_, c_). It 
takes ".ini" files for
every level that may contain, what every file of this kind should 
contain.

I also attached an sample environment to play with.

> Table of Contents (Chapters *only*, clickable links)

You get clickable links with
\setupinteraction[state=start]

You find setups of special ToCs in the attached environment.

> and have that generate a figure and index entry. A list of formulas as 
> an appendix would be REALLY slick.

You can define more than one index with \...register, see manual.


Grüßlis vom Hraban!
-- 
http://www.fiee.net/texnique/