Simple input vs component structure

[Malte Stien <malte@stien.de>]

Hi all,

I have a set of reference manuals that consist of a number of chapters. Those documents pull in the individual chapters via \input commands.

I have just recently discovered that ConTeXt actually DOES support a project/product/component structure. So, I have been experimenting with making the individual reference manuals ‘products’ and converting all chapters into ‘components’. However, I wonder what that actually gains me? What are the benefits of this product/component structure? It looks like I can reference other sections in these other components, but I can do that now even with the simple \input.

What am I missing?

Another related question in this context is: What do I actually expect when I run the project file, as in:

  $ context project.tex

ConText runs for a little while, and actually states in the log somewhere

  result saved in file: project.pdf, compresslevel 3, objectcompresslevel 3

but no such file is generated; it also does not build the individual components? What does it do? Or what should I expect it to do?

Thank you,
Malte

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