Re: general suggestion for ConTeXt documentation

[Henning Hraban Ramm <texml@fiee.net>]

Am 2018-08-08 um 18:31 schrieb Pablo Rodriguez <oinos@gmx.es>:

> Hi Hraban,
> your book will be an important reference, althought it won’t be “the
> reference” (I doubt such a thing might exist).

Thank you for the encouragement!

>> E.g. I wanted margin notes. Like footnotes, but in the margin. No
>> problem if you want them at the bottom. Very hard if you want them like
>> marginals, starting in the line of the marker... Is this common enough
>> to include it in my book?
> 
> I would say this is too specific. But I would provide the explanation in
> the wiki.

They are, even if not exactly in the same way as I’m using them, because this is influenced by other design choices (not even mine; I must adhere to the somewhat strange ideas of a designer).

Nearly everything that appears in my book is somewhere in the wiki, also since I often add things that were missing.

But sometimes the order matters or you can find things on the wiki only if you know where to look for what.


>> As a media designer, who’s also working with InDesign, my focus is of
>> course different from a scientist who just wants her thesis
>> readable...
> 
> I think it is essential to have a wider range of explanations on how to
> do things with ConTeXt (or even with computers, but this is a different
> topic).
> I’m not saying that other approaches are wrong. Just only not everyone
> may understand things the same way.

Of course. Everyone needs a different approach to things – I often experienced teachers who knew only one approach, e.g. in math, and couldn’t explain their stuff so that at least a few more students could understand the matter. Probably because they didn’t really understood themselves what they were teaching.

In engineering school I coached a few colleagues who had difficulties with math, and I like to remember the one (who "only" had a CSE, Hauptschulabschluss, and used to work as a printer) who looked astonished at me in one session and said "It’s really that simple!?", when I managed to find an approach to functions that worked for him. :)

And I still could smash my primary school teacher: When I asked "what happens if we subtract a bigger number from a smaller?", she answered "that’s not possible". :(
She could have easily told me "you will learn that later" or just show me at the thermometer "look, we will get below zero"...
But noo, better keep children dumb, otherwise they could outwit you.

Sorry for ranting ;)


Greetlings, Hraban
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