Re: ConTeXt possibilities

[Aditya Mahajan <adityam@umich.edu>]

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007, Istvan Hollerbach wrote:

> Dear Everybody,
>
> My name is Istvan Hollerbach. I am still looking at ConTeXt. Are usable
> with ConTeXt only modules found at http://modules.contextgarden.net/, or
> which usable are with plain TeX as well?

Most of the modules avaialbe at modules.coontextgarden.net are usuable 
only with Context. However, most macros for plain tex work with 
context.

> I think of xypic for example.
> Can I write a document for example in Sanskrit? Being a beginner, of
> course I will neither use xypic for a some length of time, nor I will
> write a document in Sanskrit. I am only interested in possibilities
> compared to LaTeX.

In principle, since latex and context are both build on top of tex 
engine, anything that is possible in one is also possible in the 
other. However, it does take some effort to port the functionality of 
one from the other.

In general, with regards to packages, most latex packages enhance the 
capabilities of built in latex environments. With context, the built 
in environments were designed with flexibility in mind and are easy to 
change. So you do not need external packages.

Most latex font packages are useless for context. You will need to 
write your own typescripts if you want to use the fonts in context. In 
most cases this is simple. For non-latin languages like Sanskrit, you 
will need to do some work if you want to get it working with ConTeXt. 
Traditionally, non-latin languages worked using transcription. So you 
write something in latin alphabet, run a program which translates it 
into something else, and then run tex over that file. This is how the 
devnag package for latex works. But now, with xetex and luatex, you do 
not need to do this. You can type in unicode and rest of it just 
works. I had tried using Hindi (a modern day offshoot of Sanskrit) 
using XeTeX (the XeTeX website has an example), and changed the markup 
to ConTeXt and it worked. It should be similar with Sanskrit, and 
other languages like languages from the Arabic family.

For special purpose packages like xypic, if the package has an option 
for plain tex (like xypic, pictex, pstricks, pgf, and many more), it 
also works with ConTeXt. If it is not plain tex compatible, then you 
will have to port it to ConTeXt. In some cases this can be difficult. 
So, if there is a esoteric, domain specific, package that you must 
have, make sure that there is something comparable in context before 
making the shift. If you are not sure, ask here.


Aditya

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