Re: Hans political ConTeXt orientation request!

[Maurice Diamantini dom <mdiam@chello.fr>]

Le 25 juin 04, à 18:03, Hans Hagen a écrit :

> Maurice Diamantini wrote:
>
>> About math, biblio and context2html missing features
>> mentionned in previous discussion,

...
in context the built in support for math is limited to
> - symbols
> - numbering
> - spacing
>
> (and for those who want that, math typesetting on grids). Everything 
> else math related is collected in modules:
>
> - math: math module, nath module, mathml module
> - physics: units module
> - chemistry: ppchtex
>
> the two math modules are maintaind by taco and giusseppe; much of the 
> original math module is now distributed over kernel modules and 
> m-newmat.tex (but i still need to finish that one); a good alternative 
> is the nath module, but since nath is not 'generic' giusseppe had to 
> patch some things; when he's satisfied, i'll take a look at his code 
> and see what needs to move to the kernel or needs specific support;

Great news, thanks'you!

> but for most purposes things are already workable
I'have used it for my document (and include it as part of it)

What is missing in t-nath is perhaps some document exemple about what
is available and what is not (yet).
The same is between standard ams-latex and t-amsl in context
These exemples could be used as regression tests by taco and giusseppe
and as documentation for the users.


> the other 'often asked' functionality concerns bibliographies; there 
> is a module by taceo for this; in the future (depending on the 
> developments in the bibtex arena) i will look into multilingual bibtex 
> and xml as input

Great new too;
Is the any hope m-bib will be includes some day into the standard 
context distribution?

>> I also  know that such a task is not feasable by only one
>> person (even by Hans :-)
> as long as one builds on top of the system and support modules 
> (syst-*.tex and supp-*.tex) or uses high level constructs, one can 
> write extensions -)

About extension, I'd like some way to create new context command with 
the possibility
to pass "intelligent" parametres system:
but see my separate post "High level user macro (howto?)"


>> So the only way to make this project realisable is to
>> get (stole :-) guru from LaTeX community to ConTeXt.
>
> there are a few context users on this list who know latex quite well -)

The request was not for a Context user who know LaTeX very well,
but for some LaTeX contributor to switch from LaTeX to ConTeXt :-)
I think to tex4ht, lilypond contributor, ...
(I havn't been able to find the beta tex4ht recently mentionned here)

>> And nobody will contribute in a project that it hasn't
>> fully adopted!
>
> hm, keep in mind that in the beginning of tex there  could be some 
> influence on that (read: amstex and latex were pushed by user groups 
> in favor of for instance  lamstex,  inrstex, etc) ;

You are right: and I hope ConTeXt will becomme the standard (:-)

>> For this, one need:
>> 1 - a clear polilical objective for context,
>
> hm, i'm not going to promise context-2 (like latex-3), but here are a 
> few things on my agenda:
>
> -  some clean up of code and maybe even rewrite of parts of the code 
> (esp lists and
>    section  handling)
> -  converting the low level dutch into english (can be done 
> automatically -i  did that
>    some years ago-) but i need a moment of 'silence' for that

I heard from some poeple (potencial contributors) for which this was a 
great default for
context (internal documentation)

> -  support for xsl-fo (i occasionally work on that, when i can 
> motivate myself); much of it
>    is finished

does it means that there will be some user way to convert context file 
to html?

> -  extending the xml interface definition (with patrick); somehow 
> connect that with documentation;
>    create a reverse path, i.e. define layouts etc in xml

Great new for internal documentation (I suppose this will be the mean 
to complete
the http://members.ping.de:8061/ reference manual ?

> -  more extensive support for multi media

ConTeXt is probaly already the (one of the?) best tool for that (but 
for html :-)

> -  more interfaces as part of the example framework (different thread, 
> but of interest
>    to web publishing)
> -  (some fun projects)
> -  some educational specific things
>
> - reorganizing my documentation tree and putting some source code on 
> line

> - extending/updating manuals (i wanted to dedicate time to that 
> earlier this year, but
>   adapting to changes in tds / web2c took quite some time)

The Context book would be the most important thing to do, I think.
And it is independant from the online reference commands manual.
It could be sold, so contribute for you to eat!

> (ok, i also have todo some projects in order to survive)

Would it be not possible:
- to ask some financial support for other TeX user groups,
- ask for some "call for contribution" from indivual ConTeXt
   users, or a subscription to some online bulletin?



> (and ... i also want to look into extending tex and metapost)
>
>> 2 - the way (or path, or mean?) adopted for reaching it,
>> 3 - the adapted  developpement model,
>> 4 - some (elastical) roadmap.
>
> driven by demand
>
>> As I said, I see ConTeXt as a (potencial) full replacement
>> for LaTeX. I've writen a technical slide presentation
>> and an article like document (20 pages) for testing that.
>> I succeded (with some work)
>> But for now, I can't encourage a student for begining with
>> ConTeXt instead of LaTeX.

I keep thinking that the LaTeX community should be the main target for a
raising ConTeXt community; because LaTeX community already is convainced
by the progamming document model against the wiziwig document model.

But I'm glad to see that you have great projet for ConTeXt!
Thank you very much!

-- Maurice