From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.comp.tex.context/42758 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "luigi scarso" Newsgroups: gmane.comp.tex.context Subject: Re: cont-enp.pdf on lulu Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:42:08 +0200 Message-ID: References: <200807212037.06180.john@wexfordpress.com> <5D9E79AF-5662-493B-B1E5-8086D472FCF0@rna.nl> Reply-To: mailing list for ConTeXt users NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="===============0538352202==" X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1217025769 24048 80.91.229.12 (25 Jul 2008 22:42:49 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2008 22:42:49 +0000 (UTC) To: "mailing list for ConTeXt users" Original-X-From: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl Sat Jul 26 00:43:37 2008 Return-path: Envelope-to: gctc-ntg-context-518@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from ronja.vet.uu.nl ([131.211.172.88] helo=ronja.ntg.nl) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1KMW0e-0008Us-7e for gctc-ntg-context-518@m.gmane.org; Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:43:36 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6B3771FC74; Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:42:38 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from ronja.ntg.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (smtp.ntg.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id 12245-01; Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:42:20 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from ronja.vet.uu.nl (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7B2BF1FBB5; Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:42:20 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8ACF91FADC for ; Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:42:17 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from ronja.ntg.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (smtp.ntg.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id 07979-02 for ; Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:42:11 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from wf-out-1314.google.com (wf-out-1314.google.com [209.85.200.168]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 45A911FADB for ; Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:42:10 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: by wf-out-1314.google.com with SMTP id 27so3987749wfd.5 for ; Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:42:09 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: by 10.142.14.18 with SMTP id 18mr718459wfn.129.1217025728972; Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:42:08 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: by 10.142.240.15 with HTTP; Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:42:08 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <5D9E79AF-5662-493B-B1E5-8086D472FCF0@rna.nl> X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at ntg.nl X-BeenThere: ntg-context@ntg.nl X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.9 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 X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at ntg.nl Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.comp.tex.context:42758 Archived-At: --===============0538352202== Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_Part_148023_16407191.1217025728967" ------=_Part_148023_16407191.1217025728967 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline These are all my opinions, of course. > > The lack of proper end user documentation is one of the main problems > with ConTeXt. Eventually, actually one of the main problems is the lack of people like Wolfgang Schuster . For sure the things can be better if everyone uses the wiki to search and update documentations or write solutions. There was talk of a book about ConTeXt but I haven't > heard about that one for a while. Probably impossible given the lack > of stability (aka ongoing development) of ConTeXt. > mkii is not so instable. mkiv is under active development, but I'm using it for a catalog from october of last year. > > ConTeXt could become very popular in teh TeX world if it had: > - A decent versioning support (where you can get documentation and > code that match and not code from 2008 with documentation from 2001) > - Side-by-side development of manuals and code > More or less, TeX and Latext suffer of the same problem. > As it is now, the developing community is restricted to the few gurus > who can hack the ConTeXt source code. >>From what I know, the developer of ConTeXt is Hans Hagen. There are some texnicians who help in debuggings; there are some people (wolfgang,mojca, aditja,...) who know context better than others and offers their support on the mailing list (we also need more people like them) . BTW, we are lucky that developing is firmly on the hands of Hans. No other sane person will try to > release and support something on such a volatile foundation. It's no true. What > ConTeXt looks to me currently, is a personal swiss army knife of a few > people who have no need for end user documentation (so it never > arrives). ConTeXt/mkiv actually is the most advanced macro_packages_system build on top of luatex, the successor of pdftex; it's a serious competitor in the world of typesetting systems. With lua build in, will attract more 'traditional' programmers than tex/latex/pdftex etc. It's an ongoing process of development, because it's not easy to develop luatex-mplib-mkiv in synch (and taco is another giant ) It can be true that actually context is hard to learn, but I don't think that this is the right moment for a book. And to be clear: without luatex, TeX will not survive. Only my 1cent. -- luigi ------=_Part_148023_16407191.1217025728967 Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline
These  are all my opinions, of course.
 

The lack of proper end user documentation is one of the main problems
with ConTeXt.
Eventually, actually one of the main problems is the lack of
people like Wolfgang  Schuster .
For sure the things can be better if everyone uses  the wiki to search and update documentations
or write solutions.

There was talk of a book about ConTeXt but I haven't
heard about that one for a while. Probably impossible given the lack
of stability (aka ongoing development) of ConTeXt.
mkii is not so instable.
mkiv is under active development,
but I'm using it for a catalog from  october of last year.

ConTeXt could become very popular in teh TeX world if it had:
- A decent versioning support (where you can get documentation and
code that match and not code from 2008 with documentation from 2001)
- Side-by-side development of manuals and code
More or less, TeX and Latext suffer of the same problem.


As it is  now, the developing community is restricted to the few gurus
who can hack the ConTeXt source code.
From what I know,
the developer of ConTeXt  is Hans Hagen.
There are some texnicians
who help in debuggings; there are some people (wolfgang,mojca, aditja,...)
who know context better than others and offers their support
on the mailing list (we also need more people like them) .
BTW, we are lucky
that developing is firmly on the hands of Hans.



No other sane person will try to
release and support something on such a volatile foundation.
It's no true.


What
ConTeXt looks to me currently, is a personal swiss army knife of a few
people who have no need for end user documentation (so it never
arrives).
ConTeXt/mkiv actually is the most advanced macro_packages_system build on top of luatex,
the successor of pdftex; it's a serious competitor in the world of typesetting systems.
With lua build in, will attract more 'traditional' programmers than tex/latex/pdftex etc.
It's an ongoing process of development, because it's not easy to develop luatex-mplib-mkiv
in synch (and taco is another giant )
It can be true that actually context is hard to learn, but I don't think that this is the right moment for a book.


And to be clear: without luatex, TeX will not survive.

Only my 1cent.

--
luigi
------=_Part_148023_16407191.1217025728967-- --===============0538352202== 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 : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________ --===============0538352202==--