Re: [OT] Research into Generative Typesetting

[John Haltiwanger <john.haltiwanger@gmail.com>]

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On Sat, Jul 23, 2011 at 9:37 AM, Christian <metan0r@gmx.de> wrote:

> > One of the things this list might be excited about is the typography
> itself. I
> > use many of Robert Bringhurst's suggestions, and I think the output is
> much
> > the better for his advice.[^1] The HTML version was never totally
> finished (I'd
> > prefer it to have JavaScript interaction and more Web-specific
> functionality).
> > In fact, I had quite some plans for it, but as the deadline of the thesis
> > approached, I necessarily poured my efforts more into content than
> > presentation, and where presentation was concerned I was much more
> > preoccupied with the Context version. All in all, I am happy with the
> thesis
> > but I also know that it could use some work. If you have any feedback,
> please
> > let me know.
> >
> > [^1]: If anyone is interested, I'm thinking I might make a module that
> sets up
> > the environment according to these conventions.
>
>
> I like the idea of pre-made styles. I'm not shure if a module would provide
> the necessary flexibility, though. Maybe a style collection (with commented
> code and linked sample output PDFs) in the wiki would do the job. Like there
> is for the biochemistry textbook. From there users could just use it as a
> whole or adapt it to their needs.
>
>
That is certainly one approach. Hoewever, I'd like to make it as easy as
possible for people who just want to use defaults to do so. One solution is
to have a script that generates a scaffold environment inside a Context
source file. Then they do not need to keep multiple templates around or have
internet access when creating a document. (I know that for experienced
Context users, having some .env files or source templates around is no
problem, but I'm thinking of users who are less experienced or just want to
typeset Markdown documents without messing with TeX).

./context-style-gen.rb --style=bringhurst --input=myThesis.markdown
myThesis.tex

A style I am _really_ excited about is Tufte's, something along the lines of
the 'tufte-latex' package (but without the dozen or so dependencies it
requres in LaTeX, since we should be able to do all that functionality just
from core Context :)

So if anyone is interested in working on such an environment, please get in
touch with me.


From scrolling through the pages I must say that your design is very
> appealing. I would change some minor details, though (But I'm sure you've
> had your reasons :)
> -Structure level 2 and 3 are not visually distinct (only by the numbers)
> see e.g. page 65. Maybe using italics for the 3rd level (like Bringhurst
> does it) would help to distinguish the titles.
> -No spacing after paragraphs if you already use indent. (Afaik the
> consensus is "indent or space, not both")
> -Indenting after a picture or line of code looks odd to me and can cause
> strange results. (See e.g. page 65. After "rm -rf /*" there is an indent in
> the middle of the sentence.
> -There are some issues with the links in the bibliography (e.g. page 99).
> Also, bibliographies should be set flushleft imho, due to their brief nature
> they don't really provide enough words to allow automated paragraph
> construction. The result is a somewhat uneven feel due to big word spacing.
>

All very good points, thank you!


> But who am I to grouch? My thesis currently consists of 5 pages xD so I
> should really not be pointing fingers here^^
> Again, congratulations on your thesis.
>

And good luck to you on yours!

Cheers,
John

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