ConTeXt vs. LaTeX -> XML/MathML -> XHTML/SVG/PNG -> ePub

["Grant W. Petty" <grantwp3@gmail.com>]

On Mon, Aug 2, 2010 at 10:10 AM, Grant W. Petty <grantwp3@gmail.com> wrote:
> I am trying out ConTeXt for the very first time, hoping to assess
> whether it's worth re-tooling from LaTeX for authoring scientific
> textbooks.
>

To elaborate on this comment which I made in another thread, I have
written and self-published two university-level atmospheric science
textbooks in LaTeX which are doing quite well by the standards of my
small field.   I am now also contracting to publish textbooks for
other authors.

I am very interested in eventually reformatting my own existing books,
as well as future books, as documents that can be both printed as
professional-quality bound textbooks as well as distributed as e-books
-- for example  ePub format and/or XHTML.   The principle technical
hurdle seems to be posed by the heavy use of mathematical equations.
I want the math in the electronic versions to be very clean and
scalable (e.g., SVG; eventually MathML as e-readers do a better job of
supporting it).

While there are programs like TeX4HT and LaTeXML that convert LaTeX
source to XML/MathML, they seem to have trouble with unfamiliar
packages and macros, and the math rendering seems quite imperfect as
well (though I can't yet tell whether that's a problem with the
conversion to MathML or rather with current e-readers imperfect
support for MathML).

My question is whether anyone has insight into the relative strengths
of LaTeX vs. ConTeXt as an authoring environment in the specific case
that the author wants high-quality multi-format outputs for  print and
electronic distribution.  An example workflow I could imagine would be

ConTeXT or LaTeX source   ->   XML/MathML  (DocBook?)  ->  PDF or
XHTML with math encoded as MathML and/or SVG and/or PNG -> ePub with
high-quality math readable on various commercial readers

I'm quite new to this subject matter, having only begun to learn about
e-publishing formats a couple of weeks ago, so I'll welcome any
advice, however basic.

It's my impression, by the way, that ConTeXT does not directly support
AMSMath, which might mean having to not only rewrite a lot of existing
source but also to re-learn how to write math.

    Thanks,
    Grant
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