There was a thread about columns and whitespace ~ 2 weeks ago, but I wasn't
a subscriber then.  I've just come across it independently myself.  I'm not
sure what conclusion was come to.  From a few tests, I'd characterize the
problem code in \startcolumns as: "if whitespace has been set to more than
none, set whitespace to 'line'."

Try it by uncommenting various lines:


%\setupwhitespace[none]
%\setupwhitespace[small]

\starttext

\startcolumns[n=2]
%\setupwhitespace[small]
\input knuth
\stopcolumns

\stoptext


Do people agree with that characterization; has the bug been found; what's
being done about it?  I don't want to have to re-setup whitespace every time
I go to columns.



James