From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.comp.tex.context/41279 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Henning Hraban Ramm Newsgroups: gmane.comp.tex.context Subject: Re: How could a typesetting system be today? Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 21:04:50 +0200 Message-ID: References: <68bfdc900805300012o789c12ebi15cb7ec3e0f10155@mail.gmail.com> <68bfdc900805300524r38f327acg88e766ea5a159acc@mail.gmail.com> Reply-To: mailing list for ConTeXt users NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v924) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1212174383 26530 80.91.229.12 (30 May 2008 19:06:23 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 19:06:23 +0000 (UTC) To: mailing list for ConTeXt users Original-X-From: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl Fri May 30 21:07:04 2008 Return-path: Envelope-to: gctc-ntg-context-518@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from ronja.vet.uu.nl ([131.211.172.88] helo=ronja.ntg.nl) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1K29wM-0002L3-N1 for gctc-ntg-context-518@m.gmane.org; Fri, 30 May 2008 21:07:02 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0D4791FC6A; Fri, 30 May 2008 21:06:15 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from ronja.ntg.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (smtp.ntg.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id 10845-01-5; Fri, 30 May 2008 21:05:31 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from ronja.vet.uu.nl (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id A56C61FC07; Fri, 30 May 2008 21:05:31 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id E4C881FB29 for ; Fri, 30 May 2008 21:05:29 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from ronja.ntg.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (smtp.ntg.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id 10845-01-4 for ; Fri, 30 May 2008 21:04:52 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from lvps87-230-27-118.dedicated.hosteurope.de (fiee.net [87.230.27.118]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 235CF1FC07 for ; Fri, 30 May 2008 21:04:52 +0200 (CEST) Comment: DomainKeys? See http://antispam.yahoo.com/domainkeys Original-Received: (qmail 24268 invoked from network); 30 May 2008 21:04:51 +0200 Original-Received: from 189-8.1-85.cust.bluewin.ch (HELO ?10.128.9.9?) (85.1.8.189) by fiee.net with (AES128-SHA encrypted) SMTP; 30 May 2008 21:04:51 +0200 In-Reply-To: X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.924) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at ntg.nl X-BeenThere: ntg-context@ntg.nl X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.9 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 X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at ntg.nl Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.comp.tex.context:41279 Archived-At: Am 2008-05-30 um 14:31 schrieb Idris Samawi Hamid: >> There is no denying that many advanced features in InDesign are >> missing in TeX(like) related software. What's more, the >> internationalization of InDesign is better. > > Can you give a precise list of the features contained in InDesign > that are > missing in (lua)TeX or which TeX does not support well? - much faster (i.e. I don't need to wait for several TeX runs e.g. if I need to check if some tweak fixed my page breaking) - optical (vs. metrical) kerning - a GUI ;-) and thus layout by "let's try how it looks" - layout definition (I struggle with ConTeXt's \setuplayout every time) - better page breaking constraints (you can define in your style sheets "keep n lines together" and "keep this together with the next paragraph) - PDF/X output - color profile conversions - image processing features like crop paths, feathered edges, drop shadow (in ConTeXt I need to prepare such in Photoshop in the right size - but I guess it would be possible to write a module that uses ImageMagick to achieve something similar) Problems in TeX *and* InDesign: - Unicode handling (composed and decomposed UTF-8 with or without BOM, UTF-16, different line endings) Working with InDesign as a developer I know that TeX's documentation is far better. Adobe's developer docs (e.g. on API, XML format, InDesign tagged text) are incomplete and errorneous. I don't think you can call the one or other "better" or "more advanced", it's just a different approach, and I choose the right tool for every project. (I.e. I only use TeX if I need the same content in different versions, if I can automate something or for books.) But the layout applications like InDesign (there's still also ugly old QuarkXPress, coming-of-age Scribus and some others) have learned a lot of the former domains of TeX, like registers and toc generation. There are still some areas where you need a programmable system, even trivia like chapter dependant running titles (in ConTeXt: headertexts). Greetlings from Lake Constance! Hraban --- http://www.fiee.net/texnique/ http://wiki.contextgarden.net https://www.cacert.org (I'm an assurer) ___________________________________________________________________________________ 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 : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________