From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.comp.tex.context/60618 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Grant W. Petty" Newsgroups: gmane.comp.tex.context Subject: ConTeXt vs. LaTeX -> XML/MathML -> XHTML/SVG/PNG -> ePub Date: Mon, 2 Aug 2010 11:30:17 -0500 Message-ID: Reply-To: mailing list for ConTeXt users NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1280766630 5912 80.91.229.12 (2 Aug 2010 16:30:30 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 2 Aug 2010 16:30:30 +0000 (UTC) To: Mailing list for ConTeXt users Original-X-From: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl Mon Aug 02 18:30:28 2010 Return-path: Envelope-to: gctc-ntg-context-518@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from balder.ntg.nl ([195.12.62.10]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OfxuG-0005Fn-3E for gctc-ntg-context-518@m.gmane.org; Mon, 02 Aug 2010 18:30:28 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by balder.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 213BEC9E8D; Mon, 2 Aug 2010 18:30:27 +0200 (CEST) X-Virus-Scanned: Debian amavisd-new at balder.ntg.nl Original-Received: from balder.ntg.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (balder.ntg.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id mmVqIpc0dCgK; Mon, 2 Aug 2010 18:30:24 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from balder.ntg.nl (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by balder.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 79CE5C9E7E; Mon, 2 Aug 2010 18:30:22 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by balder.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 71735C9C69 for ; Mon, 2 Aug 2010 18:30:20 +0200 (CEST) X-Virus-Scanned: Debian amavisd-new at balder.ntg.nl Original-Received: from balder.ntg.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (balder.ntg.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id Vyh9J-AnsASk for ; Mon, 2 Aug 2010 18:30:18 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from mail-ww0-f45.google.com (mail-ww0-f45.google.com [74.125.82.45]) by balder.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3645FC9AD9 for ; Mon, 2 Aug 2010 18:30:18 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: by wwf26 with SMTP id 26so3543932wwf.2 for ; Mon, 02 Aug 2010 09:30:17 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:received:date:message-id :subject:from:to:content-type; bh=gv8qFlwg0cy+J5kOQa/HOkkilHLfAQo1Eb/jg0hDMjk=; b=bhBvkfMQ/6/1gdKIvtW6akFMp44IFI8g6loWuwZV5mx9ZxSSEgDwQXG/oUMmu+DmGJ WtLTS8z/5ZWeDB1AbPrH2yNY0h+FSamOFjbmvycnLTBxfO4Up4n0XhQ/m+sEvRhnG9ck vCsmhP4NVgPYiAvbTjFIe3Ff+DEkzHPimLHtg= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type; b=b9S40w72ugQZmlxq7Evg8odnXCg0Tj4ib9QwXXC8u6x/i1O9wCULAqY8I0jQAcnfht 0n/v/6d5JAZMMvGHm0SqRISEkzAjr8ffRUEVOwvSX+erDlheAoiKNyZs5eiTxwNTu+/2 PMepSQTUxrptGVHhB3Pkcd95w/lab+XGfCqAA= Original-Received: by 10.216.90.3 with SMTP id d3mr5086073wef.99.1280766617447; Mon, 02 Aug 2010 09:30:17 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: by 10.216.236.148 with HTTP; Mon, 2 Aug 2010 09:30:17 -0700 (PDT) X-BeenThere: ntg-context@ntg.nl X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.12 Precedence: list List-Id: mailing list for ConTeXt users List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl Errors-To: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.comp.tex.context:60618 Archived-At: On Mon, Aug 2, 2010 at 10:10 AM, Grant W. Petty 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 ___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________