Re: Which manual for basic drawing?

[Aditya Mahajan <adityam@umich.edu>]

On Tue, 1 May 2007, James Buchanan wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I'm writing some simple workbooks for kids in grades 1 to 10 to help
> them with their math. I've worked with TeX and LaTeX for a while, until
> I was attracted to ConTeXt for is nice colors and things like that.
>
> I need to know how to:
>
> * Draw simple number lines, color if possible, label the cm dots or
> vertical lines, label the number line, fill in the numbers (or miss some
> out), place it where I want it, and perhaps have the label in a
> different color
>
> * Draw plane shapes like squares, rectangles, triangles and so on, just
> 2-D plane shapes. Outline in some color, inside with another color.
> Label them. Place them where I a want them. Sometimes I would like to
> extend the lines to show that all exterior angles add up to 360 degrees,
> things like that, and add in the arc and shade it in a different color.

Metapost or pstricks is the easiest way to draw such things. I would 
recommend metapost, as it is well integrated with Context. See 
http://melusine.eu.org/syracuse/metapost/cours/ for some examples of 
geometric figures using metapost. Also see

http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Metapost
http://wiki.contextgarden.net/MetaFun
http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Mpgraphic

The last page does not list \usempgraphic and \startMPcode ... 
\stopMPcode which are perhaps the easiest way to include MP figures. 
See the metafun manual for details.


> When doing basic material like:
>
> Solve:
>
> 6 + 7 + 4 = [box]
>
> Have the equals signs and boxes lined up (or not), two sets of simple
> add these numbers (or whatever) per column. The answer box could be
> filled with a light color.

This can be done easily using context's alignment mechanism. I am in a 
bit of a hurry right now, and will post an example later in the 
evening.

> Is there a manual I should start with to learn how to do these things,
> and develop my own macros? First I would just like to learn how to do
> them, then gradually write my own macros. The material in my TeX Book
> and my Guide to LaTeX series gives instruction in drawing but it quickly
> progresses beyond my ability into 2-D shapes and so on. I understand
> basic things like \move{} and lineto{} and \lvec{} but that's where I
> get confused.

Have a look at the metapost manual. If you think geometrically, then 
metapost is fairly easy to use.

Aditya
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