Re: Finding documentation for ConTeXt

[Mari Voipio <mari.voipio@iki.fi>]

I think that one of the problems is that ConTeXt can do almost
anything, if you know how to ask it to do that. What I do is different
what most people use it for, but it works
(http://context.aanhet.net/svn/contextman/context-reference/en/co-pagedesign.pdf
and http://www.lucet.fi/2013/01/metaposting/ and
http://www.lucet.fi/2012/12/twpatterns/).

There used to be a project to create a test suite with various types
of files, but the links on the wiki refer to something from 2009 and
that is, as you say, probably a be obsolete. I remember somebody
talking about the test suite at one of the more recent ConTeXt
meetings (2011/2012) - anyone with more info on that project? I think
it'd help Keith (and many others, me included) to see what can be
done.


If you do not want to splurge in the books, the revised chapters on
typography, fonts and pagedesign are recommended reading and pretty
well up-to-date. They are linked to the main page of the garden, but
these take you directly to the pdfs:

http://context.aanhet.net/svn/contextman/context-reference/en/co-typography.pdf
http://context.aanhet.net/svn/contextman/context-reference/en/co-fonts.pdf
http://context.aanhet.net/svn/contextman/context-reference/en/co-pagedesign.pdf


Other than that, it'd be helpful to know what you are looking for: are
interested in typography, doing layouts for you and others? Is
automated workflow what you are looking for? Dealing with maths? XML?
What about dealing with colour? Interactivity?


I guess I've resigned to the fact that ConTeXt is so huge that I'll
never know more than a fraction of it - so I operate on a need-to-know
basis. I learn something either because I'm certain it can be done or
because I've seen it at a ConTeXt meeting or heard about it (a remark
by Hans is to be blamed for my recent MetaPosting excursions).


A slightly off-topic thought: there are hundreds of manuals on
Microsoft Word. However, once you start going deeper into the program,
it is not *that* easy to find a single good manual on the subject.
With ConTeXt it is the other way round, finding 'for Dummies'
information is hard, but once you want to dive deep, the developers
are on this list to answer questions.



Just my five cents on the subject,

Mari
(who still remembers what things were like before the wiki. this is
much better.)
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