Re: New c-o-w: The XMas gift for ConTeXt users

[Willi Egger via ntg-context <ntg-context@ntg.nl>]

Hi Zdeněk!

Congratulation, the online version, the web-site looks very nice. you have built in a lot of nice features!

I tried the interface for a short while. During testing I was thrown out each time and you do not understand why. — Does this have to do with the fact that I did not create a user-account?

While creating a tabulate I detected, that the use of the tab-key is only possible at the beginning of the line. When using the tab-key inside a tabulate line the whole line is indented for another tab.

While it is nice to see all the available command-choices it is rather less intuitive, that always the brackets are placed. Specially while editing \bTABLE … \eTABLE and the commands belonging to this table-type it could be good to have the right arrow key to have the command placed with brackets and with the down-arrow-key the command being placed without brackets (?) — I think, that the source should not be cluttered with empty brackets all over the place.

When you start the editor from the website you have no idea, what the layout of the page will be. While being somewhere in the edited text I switched to the layout-wizzard. Strange enough it is A4 on A3-Paper, I think for a normal user it should be A4 on A4 paper. The default layout dimension is in pt. — I doubt whether this is the best for a newcomer. May be mm would be better? — After returning to the editor I detected, that the new layout is placed at the cursor's position. Might it be a good idea, to place this at the top of the document or probably to ask the user whether the layout change should be placed at the cursor’s place?

In the meantime I also created an account. — Strange that I have to confirm the account to an e-mail, which does not make any reference to what account this confirmation is asked for.

Nice is that now I was not kicked out of the editor anymore!

While testing further I experienced, that the system is eating up a letter: \blank[small] —> caused a sequence undefined error: in the log there was \blank[smal … Hereafter I put a space after small  and it worked correctly. Then I withdrew the space, saved the file and started generation of PDF. — got a hanger… After restarting everything it appeared, that my test file was not listed in the editor’s left pane and also not the two uploaded picture-files. — I tried to logout. Logout does not seem to work.

Not withstanding all my comments, I am impressed how your system works. Once it will be stable I am convinced, that it can be a useful tool to promote the use of ConTeXt. Thank you for all the work performed so far!

Kind regards

Willi



 
> On 27 Dec 2022, at 00:57, Zdeněk Svoboda via ntg-context <ntg-context@ntg.nl> wrote:
> 
> Hello ConTeXt community!
> 
> I'm Zdeněk Svoboda, a master degree student at Mendel university in Brno. I've been using ConTeXt for a while now and have always been impressed by its capabilities and the helpfulness of this community.
> 
> For my thesis project with Tomáš Hála as the supervisor, I've developed an online application for working with ConTeXt. The main goal was to create an application capable of compiling ConTeXt source right from the browser but I thought that it's not enough and added a few features or tools on top of that. Functions of the application include:
> 
>     - User accounts to save files and access them from other computers.
>     - Editor with syntax highlighting and autocompletion for ConTeXt command.
>     - Generating PDF document and previewing it directly from the browser.
>     - Layout designer to customize the layout of their documents with a variety of options and mouse resizability of each layout element.
>     - Table designer for creating and customize tables with alignment and border settings, colors, merging and splitting cells eg.
>     - Lists designer with a simple interface to customize lists.
>     - Help function for ConTeXt commands (hidden under the "?" button)
> 
> Developing this application was a great learning experience for me, and I faced a number of technical challenges along the way. For example, having to dig through the XML document to extract all the information needed for the "?" help function.
> 
> I'm excited to share my project with the ConTeXt community and hope that it will be a useful resource for someone. If you're interested in trying it out, you can find it at https://www.context-on-web.eu/. I'd love to hear any feedback or suggestions you have. If you find a bug or encounter an error while using the application, please let me know (and cc: thala@mendelu.cz) the steps you took that caused it.
> 
> Known bugs:
>     - Generated code from table designer needs better formatting
>     - Duplicated color definitions in table designer
>     - Layout designer -- numbers are not rounded
> 
> Best regards,
> Zdeněk Svoboda
> 
> ___________________________________________________________________________________
> If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!
> 
> maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / https://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
> webpage  : https://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://context.aanhet.net
> archive  : https://bitbucket.org/phg/context-mirror/commits/
> wiki     : https://contextgarden.net
> ___________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / https://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
webpage  : https://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://context.aanhet.net
archive  : https://bitbucket.org/phg/context-mirror/commits/
wiki     : https://contextgarden.net
___________________________________________________________________________________