From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.comp.tex.context/56728 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: richard.stephens@converteam.com Newsgroups: gmane.comp.tex.context Subject: Re: suggestions for context documentation Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2010 10:01:19 +0000 Message-ID: References: Reply-To: mailing list for ConTeXt users NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="===============0232198838==" X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1267783539 31575 80.91.229.12 (5 Mar 2010 10:05:39 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2010 10:05:39 +0000 (UTC) To: ntg-context@ntg.nl Original-X-From: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl Fri Mar 05 11:05:35 2010 connect(): Connection refused Return-path: Envelope-to: gctc-ntg-context-518@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from balder.ntg.nl ([195.12.62.10]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1NnUPW-0005M0-Ll for gctc-ntg-context-518@m.gmane.org; Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:05:34 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by balder.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id E24D9C9CFF; Fri, 5 Mar 2010 11:05:31 +0100 (CET) X-Virus-Scanned: Debian amavisd-new at balder.ntg.nl Original-Received: from balder.ntg.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (balder.ntg.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id hFG2HgWQSiE0; Fri, 5 Mar 2010 11:05:29 +0100 (CET) Original-Received: from balder.ntg.nl (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by balder.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id E79B3C9CF6; Fri, 5 Mar 2010 11:05:27 +0100 (CET) Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by balder.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 10C4AC9CF6 for ; Fri, 5 Mar 2010 11:05:26 +0100 (CET) X-Virus-Scanned: Debian amavisd-new at balder.ntg.nl Original-Received: from balder.ntg.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (balder.ntg.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id uiUp5R3NV0M8 for ; Fri, 5 Mar 2010 11:05:14 +0100 (CET) Original-Received: from eu1sys200aog111.obsmtp.com (eu1sys200aog111.obsmtp.com [207.126.144.131]) by balder.ntg.nl (Postfix) with SMTP id 2DA6EC9B99 for ; Fri, 5 Mar 2010 11:05:14 +0100 (CET) Original-Received: from source ([212.155.191.22]) (using SSLv3) by eu1sys200aob111.postini.com ([207.126.147.11]) with SMTP ID DSNKS5DXWUibb0y09b55Xy9rJDY5NTg1lQzW@postini.com; Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:05:14 UTC In-Reply-To: X-Disclaimed: 25102 X-Mailer: Lotus Notes Release 7.0.3 September 26, 2007 X-MIMETrack: Serialize by Router on G-WWH21/SRV/ALSTOM(Release 7.0.3|September 26, 2007) at 05/03/2010 11:12:20, Serialize complete at 05/03/2010 11:12:20 X-BeenThere: ntg-context@ntg.nl X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.12 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 Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.comp.tex.context:56728 Archived-At: --===============0232198838== Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII"
> No, not like those.  I mean like a real manual.  I read the book
> about Hasselt---a few examples without explanations.
I am absolutely gobsmacked (astounded, astonished) at some of the comments on this and other threads!
"ConTeXt - an Excursion" and "ConTeXt the Manual" together are wonderful. I still consult them at least once a week
after 4 year's use. If you actually tried the examples in the former, rather than just reading them, you
would be an expert user within 2 days!

It would be nice to think that the community could construct documentation, but good, coherent documentation
is much harder to produce than good code! It works for collections of small articles (WikiPedia etc), but
I've never seen a good book written by a community.

While it would be nice to have an updated "ConTeXt the Manual", in my humble opinion the biggest hole
in the documentation is a reference for each command. Texshow-web should fill this gap and this is
where the community CAN contribute, and where the mechanism already exists. And because it's made up of
small articles it could work. When I learn about a command I try to fill in a few words in
texshow-web. If everyone added a few words each time they learn a new command, we would soon have
a fantastic reference source.

Richard

P.S. One request for improvement to texshow-web: the source-file for each command is included
in cont-en.xml, could this be displayed on the command web-page? It would make it easier to
find the source if you need to.




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--===============0232198838== Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline ___________________________________________________________________________________ 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 : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________ --===============0232198838==--