[NTG-context] Re: Wiki - test/proposal to further clarify documentation

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

Am 14.04.24 um 21:45 schrieb Peter Hopcroft via ntg-context:
> It would be great if the main page actually said what Context does.

In my poster (still WIP) I wrote:

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The “infamous” alternative to LaTeX

While most designers use graphical tools, there are still areas where 
code-based typesetting systems are fun, make sense or are even superior. 
While LaTeX is the most known of these, ConTeXt is used by a growing 
minority of ambitioned enthusiasts around the world.

The small but active and creative community of ConTeXt users and 
developers is always driving TeX development over new frontiers:
NTS, MetaFun, Oriental TeX, LuaTeX, mplib, LuaMetaTeX…
They’re also dubbed the incisors (AKA cutting edge) of the dinosaur of 
Open Source.

ConTeXt is aimed at creative users, known for advanced features like 
extensive font control and direct XML processing, with a deep 
integration of Lua and MetaPost.

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ConTeXt was invented in the 1990s by Hans Hagen and Ton Otten of the 
Dutch company “Pragma Advanced Document Engineering” for typesetting 
schoolbooks. Taco Hoekwater refactored the TeX source code to create 
LuaTeX which was further developed into LuaMetaTeX by Hans Hagen (and 
lately Mikael Sundqvist for refined math typography).

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“To be fair, switching to the ConTeXt way of thinking and doing things 
was not an overnight process […]. But once I got used to it, I could not 
imagine going back to LaTeX. I’ll go even further and say that, in my 
view, ConTeXt is the future of TeX.
(Prof. Idris Samawi Hamid, 2009)
Source: www.tug.org/interviews/hamid.html

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“ConTeXt is LaTeX done right. It is simple, flexible and powerful.”
(J. U. Hasecke on Mastodon, 2022)

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Is ConTeXt for me?

If you want …
* to design your own layout
* best quality math typesetting
* to use Lua functions e.g. for processing data
* deep integration of a graphics language (MetaPost)
* to process XML input
* no package conflicts
* to use OpenType features
* consistent setup commands
* to place stuff on layers
* visual debugging features
* to have a lean, but mighty TeX system
* to typeset much faster than with LaTeX
* high quality Arabic typography
… then ConTeXt is for you!

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