Typographical Engineering in Context

Typographical Engineering in Context

[Idris Samawi Hamid ادريس سماوي حامد]

[Disclaimer: NOT a joke!]

Dear gang, cabal, and knights of the context table,

FYI: I am presently working on a book:

Typographical Ontology and Engineering:
Structured and Automated Authoring in Context

It is a book on ConTeXt, but NOT a ConTeXtBook, ConTeXt Companion, or  
other clone. Rather, it aims to introduce Context as a general tool for  
typographical and typesetting engineering. Some of the philosophy of book  
design and layout will be discussed, and it will contain a strong  
reference to commands etc.

NB: MKIV ONLY!

The basic outline is


I. Ontology and Theory
II. Typographical Engineering in Context [including special topics,  
advanced techniques of luatex, opentype etc]
III. A Typographical Engineer's Reference [organization of options and  
commands, glossary]
IV. Appendix: Authoring in Notepad++ [or some other tool]
V. Indices


So no knowledge or familiarity with TeX is assumed at all. We will cover  
some advanced topics as well, including introductions to luatex scripting  
etc

I was not planning to announce this for some time yet, but given the buzz  
around the topic on ConTeXt documentation Hans thought it would be a good  
moment to introduce this project and to get your feedback.

So please use this thread to make suggestions:

What would you all like to see covered in the planned book project:

Typographical Ontology and Engineering: Structured and Automated Authoring  
in Context

I look forward to your feedback and suggestions!

Best wishes
Idris

-- 
Professor Idris Samawi Hamid, Editor-in-Chief
International Journal of Shi`i Studies
Department of Philosophy
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523

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___________________________________________________________________________________

Re: Typographical Engineering in Context

[John Haltiwanger]

2010/4/3 Idris Samawi Hamid ادريس   سماوي حامد <ishamid@colostate.edu>:

> It is a book on ConTeXt, but NOT a ConTeXtBook, ConTeXt Companion, or other
> clone. Rather, it aims to introduce Context as a general tool for
> typographical and typesetting engineering. Some of the philosophy of book
> design and layout will be discussed, and it will contain a strong reference
> to commands etc.

As the unique nature of typographical programming has lead it to
under-documentation, I want to say that maintaining this as a central
focus is a brilliant idea. Will Section II involve describing some
detail important aspects of ConTeXt's internals?

> NB: MKIV ONLY!
>
> The basic outline is
>
>
> I. Ontology and Theory
> II. Typographical Engineering in Context [including special topics, advanced
> techniques of luatex, opentype etc]
> III. A Typographical Engineer's Reference [organization of options and
> commands, glossary]
> IV. Appendix: Authoring in Notepad++ [or some other tool]
> V. Indices

> So no knowledge or familiarity with TeX is assumed at all. We will cover
> some advanced topics as well, including introductions to luatex scripting
> etc

As this is precisely my situation, perhaps I can offer you the benefit
of a test-able target audience? Today I am already looking into the
best route to learning TeX/mkiv in a holistic (ie not just looking for
the 'recipe' I need to meet a given deadline). I have just entered
full-time thesis mode, so the question begins Should I just sit down
and read the TeXBook? (something that will be done regardless, it's
just a question as what is most worthwhile to Getting Something Done
Right Now) or would it be that the LuaTeX manual is more directly
applicable? Or, perhaps, a chapter from your book? ;)

> I was not planning to announce this for some time yet, but given the buzz
> around the topic on ConTeXt documentation Hans thought it would be a good
> moment to introduce this project and to get your feedback.
>
> So please use this thread to make suggestions:
>
> What would you all like to see covered in the planned book project:
>
> Typographical Ontology and Engineering: Structured and Automated Authoring
> in Context

> I look forward to your feedback and suggestions!

I think the more you source it with the community, the stronger it
will become. That is, our ignorance will most likely help you refine
it in ways you wouldn't have expected to need to. But in other ways as
well. For example, the appendix on workflows can gain a lot from
community input I'd think.
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___________________________________________________________________________________

Re: Typographical Engineering in Context

[Idris Samawi Hamid ادريس سماوي حامد]

On Sat, 03 Apr 2010 08:41:31 -0600, John Haltiwanger  
<john.haltiwanger@gmail.com> wrote:

> 2010/4/3 Idris Samawi Hamid ادريس   سماوي حامد <ishamid@colostate.edu>:
>
>> It is a book on ConTeXt, but NOT a ConTeXtBook, ConTeXt Companion, or  
>> other
>> clone. Rather, it aims to introduce Context as a general tool for
>> typographical and typesetting engineering. Some of the philosophy of  
>> book
>> design and layout will be discussed, and it will contain a strong  
>> reference
>> to commands etc.
>
> As the unique nature of typographical programming has lead it to
> under-documentation, I want to say that maintaining this as a central
> focus is a brilliant idea. Will Section II involve describing some
> detail important aspects of ConTeXt's internals?

Let's distinguish typographical engineering from typographical  
programming. This will not be a book on the latter per se. Typographical  
engineering can be done by a non-programmer -- structured and automated  
processing using the high-level commands of Context. Typographic  
programming is an advanced topic, for which this book can serve as an  
introduction.

So there may be some introduction to the ConTeXt internals, but nothing  
too indepth. Hopefully there will be successors to this first book which  
build on the foundation in different ways, or which or written fro a  
programmer-audience from the start.

>> So no knowledge or familiarity with TeX is assumed at all. We will cover
>> some advanced topics as well, including introductions to luatex  
>> scripting
>> etc
>
> As this is precisely my situation, perhaps I can offer you the benefit
> of a test-able target audience? Today I am already looking into the
> best route to learning TeX/mkiv in a holistic (ie not just looking for
> the 'recipe' I need to meet a given deadline). I have just entered
> full-time thesis mode, so the question begins Should I just sit down
> and read the TeXBook?

For typographic programming, of course the TeXBook is, if no  
indispensable, then extremely useful.

OTOH, we need a luaTeXBook that describes the eTeX extensions, the  
omega-aleph extensions, and luatex's own extensions, not to mention using  
the lua scripting language itself.

> (something that will be done regardless, it's
> just a question as what is most worthwhile to Getting Something Done
> Right Now) or would it be that the LuaTeX manual is more directly
> applicable? Or, perhaps, a chapter from your book? ;)

I want to have one chapter on advanced techniques that includes an  
introduction to typographic programming in TeX -- including the primitive  
extensions -- and lua. But that will have to be expanded to a full book  
later on by real programmers like Wolfgang or Luigi.

>> I was not planning to announce this for some time yet, but given the  
>> buzz
>> around the topic on ConTeXt documentation Hans thought it would be a  
>> good
>> moment to introduce this project and to get your feedback.
>>
>> So please use this thread to make suggestions:
>>
>> What would you all like to see covered in the planned book project:
>>
>> Typographical Ontology and Engineering: Structured and Automated  
>> Authoring
>> in Context
>
>> I look forward to your feedback and suggestions!
>
> I think the more you source it with the community, the stronger it
> will become. That is, our ignorance will most likely help you refine
> it in ways you wouldn't have expected to need to. But in other ways as
> well. For example, the appendix on workflows can gain a lot from
> community input I'd think.

Can you explain what you mean by "appendix on workflows"?

A community model for feedback on the book would be useful. I don't want  
it too open at the moment -- can slow down development and I want to get  
this DONE. But maybe a select audience of test-able volunteers will be the  
way to go... thnx for that suggestion!

Best wishes
Idris

-- 
Professor Idris Samawi Hamid, Editor-in-Chief
International Journal of Shi`i Studies
Department of Philosophy
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523

___________________________________________________________________________________
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maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
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___________________________________________________________________________________

Re: Typographical Engineering in Context

[John Haltiwanger]

2010/4/3 Idris Samawi Hamid ادريس   سماوي حامد <ishamid@colostate.edu>:

> Let's distinguish typographical engineering from typographical programming.
> This will not be a book on the latter per se. Typographical engineering can
> be done by a non-programmer -- structured and automated processing using the
> high-level commands of Context. Typographic programming is an advanced
> topic, for which this book can serve as an introduction.

Thanks for the distinction. In that case, I think this is even better.

> For typographic programming, of course the TeXBook is, if no indispensable,
> then extremely useful.

And for typographical engineering? From your distinction, that is much
more what I am looking for.


> Can you explain what you mean by "appendix on workflows"?

Sorry, I meant "editor workflows with ConTeXt" (ie "Authoring in Notepad++").

> A community model for feedback on the book would be useful. I don't want it
> too open at the moment -- can slow down development and I want to get this
> DONE. But maybe a select audience of test-able volunteers will be the way to
> go... thnx for that suggestion!

Please let me know if I can help. Given the suitability of this book's
angle to what I am doing and the level I'm working from I do think my
perspective can be useful.
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___________________________________________________________________________________

Re: Typographical Engineering in Context

[luigi scarso]

2010/4/3 Idris Samawi Hamid ادريس   سماوي حامد <ishamid@colostate.edu>:
> Typographical Ontology and Engineering:
> Structured and Automated Authoring in Context
>
> NB: MKIV ONLY!
>
> The basic outline is
>
>
> I. Ontology and Theory
> II. Typographical Engineering in Context [including special topics, advanced
> techniques of luatex, opentype etc]
> III. A Typographical Engineer's Reference [organization of options and
> commands, glossary]
> IV. Appendix: Authoring in Notepad++ [or some other tool]
> V. Indices
>
>
> So no knowledge or familiarity with TeX is assumed at all. We will cover
> some advanced topics as well, including introductions to luatex scripting
> etc

As a computer engineer, one of the most import point of luatex-ConTeXMKIV
is the possibility offered by Lua of an easy binding with external
C/C++ shared library.
This adds another dimension to literate programming, and in some
circumstances eliminates
the separation between documentation and code.
For example, you can write an article in mkiv about Computational
Commutative Algebra
and the article *is* the program because is processed by the binding
of luatex to a comp.comm.alg library
Or you can write a text about electrical net and, if you  have a
binding to a spice library, the text is also the program
that resolve the net and show the result (in a graphical manner also,
thank to mplib).
I'm pretty sure that there are others examples in mechanical sectors,
financial sectors, combinatorial area and so on,
maybe logic too.
CPU power and disk storage are not a problem:
8cores-8GigaByte-1Tera computer has already reach the mass-market
and context mkiv and luatex are well designed.

-- 
luigi
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___________________________________________________________________________________

Re: Typographical Engineering in Context

[John Haltiwanger]

On Sat, Apr 3, 2010 at 2:41 PM, luigi scarso <luigi.scarso@gmail.com> wrote:

> As a computer engineer, one of the most import point of luatex-ConTeXMKIV
> is the possibility offered by Lua of an easy binding with external
> C/C++ shared library.
> This adds another dimension to literate programming, and in some
> circumstances eliminates
> the separation between documentation and code.
> For example, you can write an article in mkiv about Computational
> Commutative Algebra
> and the article *is* the program because is processed by the binding
> of luatex to a comp.comm.alg library
> Or you can write a text about electrical net and, if you  have a
> binding to a spice library, the text is also the program
> that resolve the net and show the result (in a graphical manner also,
> thank to mplib).
> I'm pretty sure that there are others examples in mechanical sectors,
> financial sectors, combinatorial area and so on,
> maybe logic too.
> CPU power and disk storage are not a problem:
> 8cores-8GigaByte-1Tera computer has already reach the mass-market
> and context mkiv and luatex are well designed.

I've been imagining what opportunities might be available via the
Parrot platform, as there is a native Lua on the VM that could
ostensibly share objects/classes/methods/code with any other language
on the platform. Not sure what kind of bridging options will be
available between Parrot and LuaTeX, but I think I remember something
about being able to 'inject' Lua statements into the LuaTeX engine (at
some point)? Would that make it feasible to somehow chain Parrot's Lua
to LuaTeX?

I'm not a true software engineer, just a self-taught tinkerer with
wild ideas. I hadn't been thinking in such literate programming terms,
but that sounds incredibly cool.



2010/4/3 John Haltiwanger <john.haltiwanger@gmail.com>:

>
> As this is precisely my situation, perhaps I can offer you the benefit
> of a test-able target audience? Today I am already looking into the
> best route to learning TeX/mkiv in a holistic (ie not just looking for
> the 'recipe' I need to meet a given deadline). I have just entered
> full-time thesis mode, so the question begins Should I just sit down
> and read the TeXBook? (something that will be done regardless, it's
> just a question as what is most worthwhile to Getting Something Done
> Right Now) or would it be that the LuaTeX manual is more directly
> applicable? Or, perhaps, a chapter from your book? ;)

Sorry to reply to myself, but the send button got pressed a bit early.
The point is, I want to approach TeX/mkiv in a holistic way. I don't
necessarily want to be mired in TeX constraints when it seems LuaTeX
will be a) easier b) more relevant c) more powerful. However, I can
imagine that knowing the former is important to understanding/learning
the latter.

Anyway, at the moment I'm content to read Taco's new typography
chapter and add a few notes :)
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___________________________________________________________________________________

Re: Typographical Engineering in Context

[luigi scarso]

On Sat, Apr 3, 2010 at 4:58 PM, John Haltiwanger
<john.haltiwanger@gmail.com> wrote:
> Would that make it feasible to somehow chain Parrot's Lua
> to LuaTeX?
parrot ~ luajit
cfr. http://luajit.org/
Maybe some day luatex will be jitluatex
but I don't see here a priority --- luajit is x86 specific for example.

My point of view is not so new COM  .NET , "plug-in" all share the
same concept of dynamic loading
--- but the don't know the concept of typographical programming.


-- 
luigi
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___________________________________________________________________________________

Re: Typographical Engineering in Context

[John Haltiwanger]

[-- Attachment #1.1: Type: text/plain, Size: 878 bytes --]

On Sat, Apr 3, 2010 at 5:08 PM, luigi scarso <luigi.scarso@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sat, Apr 3, 2010 at 4:58 PM, John Haltiwanger
> <john.haltiwanger@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Would that make it feasible to somehow chain Parrot's Lua
> > to LuaTeX?
> parrot ~ luajit
> cfr. http://luajit.org/
> Maybe some day luatex will be jitluatex
> but I don't see here a priority --- luajit is x86 specific for example.
>
> My point of view is not so new COM  .NET , "plug-in" all share the
> same concept of dynamic loading
> --- but the don't know the concept of typographical programming.
>
>
Parrot also knows dynamic loading, so that probably makes much more sense
than some ad-hoc tethering of the two interpreters. If I understand the
design of Parrot properly, then as soon as one language has defined an
interface to LuaTeX, that interface will be usable in other languages on the
VM.

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___________________________________________________________________________________

Re: Typographical Engineering in Context

[luigi scarso]

On Sun, Apr 4, 2010 at 2:15 PM, John Haltiwanger
<john.haltiwanger@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Sat, Apr 3, 2010 at 5:08 PM, luigi scarso <luigi.scarso@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Sat, Apr 3, 2010 at 4:58 PM, John Haltiwanger
>> <john.haltiwanger@gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Would that make it feasible to somehow chain Parrot's Lua
>> > to LuaTeX?
>> parrot ~ luajit
>> cfr. http://luajit.org/
>> Maybe some day luatex will be jitluatex
>> but I don't see here a priority --- luajit is x86 specific for example.
>>
>> My point of view is not so new COM  .NET , "plug-in" all share the
>> same concept of dynamic loading
>> --- but the don't know the concept of typographical programming.
>>
>
> Parrot also knows dynamic loading, so that probably makes much more sense
> than some ad-hoc tethering of the two interpreters. If I understand the
> design of Parrot properly, then as soon as one language has defined an
> interface to LuaTeX, that interface will be usable in other languages on the
> VM.
Sorry I  misunderstood your words.
Given that already exists an implementation of  Lua 5.1 ,
I believe that it should be feasible to implement LuaTeX
for Parrot --- using
http://github.com/fperrad/lua
as example, it seems to be more update.

I was convinced that parrot had a JIT, but now I see
http://trac.parrot.org/parrot/wiki/JITRewrite
so it's not true that parrot ~ luajit


-- 
luigi
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___________________________________________________________________________________

Re: Typographical Engineering in Context

[Marcin Borkowski]

Dnia Sat, Apr 03, 2010 at 02:58:37PM +0000, John Haltiwanger napisał(a):
> > As this is precisely my situation, perhaps I can offer you the benefit
> > of a test-able target audience? Today I am already looking into the
> > best route to learning TeX/mkiv in a holistic (ie not just looking for
> > the 'recipe' I need to meet a given deadline). I have just entered
> > full-time thesis mode, so the question begins Should I just sit down
> > and read the TeXBook? (something that will be done regardless, it's
> > just a question as what is most worthwhile to Getting Something Done
> > Right Now) or would it be that the LuaTeX manual is more directly
> > applicable? Or, perhaps, a chapter from your book? ;)
> 
> Sorry to reply to myself, but the send button got pressed a bit early.
> The point is, I want to approach TeX/mkiv in a holistic way. I don't
> necessarily want to be mired in TeX constraints when it seems LuaTeX
> will be a) easier b) more relevant c) more powerful. However, I can
> imagine that knowing the former is important to understanding/learning
> the latter.

My 3 cents: if you want to have your thesis done *quickly* and in an
easy, "howto - recipe - faq" way, just use LaTeX (probably with
amsrefs/tikz/memoir/a few others).  If you want to do more unusual
things, and have some spare time to play with them and ask a lot of
questions here - use ConTeXt.  (Some time ago, on the blog of the
Malaysian LaTeX User Group (http://latex-my.blogspot.com/) there was a
nice example of having a colourful, good-looking book done in LaTeX,
btw, so it's also possible, of course; but LaTeX was *not* designed with
such things in mind.)

And please, *do* read the TeXbook - it's sooooo much fun!

> Anyway, at the moment I'm content to read Taco's new typography
> chapter and add a few notes :)

Now I'm just feeling obliged to do the same.  I'll print them out and
read on the bus/tramway (or is it called a "cable car"?)

Regards

-- 
Marcin Borkowski (http://mbork.pl)

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___________________________________________________________________________________

Re: Typographical Engineering in Context

[John Haltiwanger]

On Sat, Apr 3, 2010 at 9:50 PM, Marcin Borkowski
<mbork@atos.wmid.amu.edu.pl> wrote:

> My 3 cents: if you want to have your thesis done *quickly* and in an
> easy, "howto - recipe - faq" way, just use LaTeX (probably with
> amsrefs/tikz/memoir/a few others).  If you want to do more unusual
> things, and have some spare time to play with them and ask a lot of
> questions here - use ConTeXt.  (Some time ago, on the blog of the
> Malaysian LaTeX User Group (http://latex-my.blogspot.com/) there was a
> nice example of having a colourful, good-looking book done in LaTeX,
> btw, so it's also possible, of course; but LaTeX was *not* designed with
> such things in mind.)

It is not just a matter of typesetting the thesis in ConTeXt---ConTeXt
is a subject of study. But even barring that, my brief experience with
LaTeX was more than enough to know that the very design of the macro
package irks me to a degree I would not like to use it at all, for
whatever purpose. It is like Ruby on Rails: "convention over
configuration." No thank you, I'm not looking for a thesis that looks
like an AMS paper, and no matter how hard ConTeXt can be to start
learning, my money is that hacking LaTeX to make it look the way I
want is much much more difficult.

The thesis also has to target both electronic and print PDFs. There is
just nothing LaTeX offers me besides a poorly designed (imo) system
that will take as much time, if not more, to learn how to customize to
my liking than ConTeXt.

> And please, *do* read the TeXbook - it's sooooo much fun!

As I said, it will be read. I was just trying to discern in which order.
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___________________________________________________________________________________

Re: Typographical Engineering in Context

[Idris Samawi Hamid ادريس سماوي حامد]

Hi luigi,

On Sat, 03 Apr 2010 08:41:47 -0600, luigi scarso <luigi.scarso@gmail.com>  
wrote:

> As a computer engineer, one of the most import point of luatex-ConTeXMKIV
> is the possibility offered by Lua of an easy binding with external
> C/C++ shared library.
> This adds another dimension to literate programming, and in some
> circumstances eliminates
> the separation between documentation and code.
> For example, you can write an article in mkiv about Computational
> Commutative Algebra
> and the article *is* the program because is processed by the binding
> of luatex to a comp.comm.alg library
> Or you can write a text about electrical net and, if you  have a
> binding to a spice library, the text is also the program
> that resolve the net and show the result (in a graphical manner also,
> thank to mplib).
> I'm pretty sure that there are others examples in mechanical sectors,
> financial sectors, combinatorial area and so on,
> maybe logic too.
> CPU power and disk storage are not a problem:
> 8cores-8GigaByte-1Tera computer has already reach the mass-market
> and context mkiv and luatex are well designed.

Now that may be TOO advanced for this book :-) though we want to have a  
few examples illustrating advanced possibilities

Best wishes
Idris

-- 
Professor Idris Samawi Hamid, Editor-in-Chief
International Journal of Shi`i Studies
Department of Philosophy
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523

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___________________________________________________________________________________

Re: Typographical Engineering in Context

[luigi scarso]

2010/4/3 Idris Samawi Hamid ادريس   سماوي حامد <ishamid@colostate.edu>:
> Hi luigi,
> Now that may be TOO advanced for this book :-) though we want to have a few
> examples illustrating advanced possibilities
http://wiki.contextgarden.net/User:Luigi.scarso/luatex_lunatic
-- 
luigi
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Re: Typographical Engineering in Context

[Graham Douglas]

Idris Hamid wrote:

==============
FYI: I am presently working on a book:

Typographical Ontology and Engineering:
Structured and Automated Authoring in Context

The basic outline is


I. Ontology and Theory
II. Typographical Engineering in Context [including special topics,
advanced techniques of luatex, opentype etc]
III. A Typographical Engineer's Reference [organization of options and
commands, glossary]
IV. Appendix: Authoring in Notepad++ [or some other tool]
V. Indices

<snip>

I look forward to your feedback and suggestions!

Best wishes
Idris
===========================

Hello Idris

A chapter or appendix on the fundamentals of Unicode
A (big...) chapter on typesetting Arabic :-) would be great
--- I've been self-teaching/studying Arabic for a couple
of years, time permitting. I hope one day to use ConTeXt to
write-up my study notes --- especially the formal grammar
which is (need I say) vast!

It would be great to be able to document tools whereby you could
mark-up any Arabic word (noun, adjective verb etc) to show certain
parts in colour or add overbraces/underbraces etc. Colouring the glyphs 
or other ways of annotating the Arabic text to help your own documenting 
and understanding of the rules. I'm sure you know what I mean!!

Of course, it would be impractical to cover all possibilities
but the core task of accessing the node lists (and (maybe) by
attributes) to introduce special effects onto the Arabic glyphs.
Tools to access the vowelling --- e.g., colour the vowels
or add boxes around them etc --- purely for the purposes
of aiding understanding/memory etc.

Anything that could help students/learners of Arabic to write really 
well typeset notes, with the Arabic text "annotated" to highlight things 
that you want to really stress.

Especially if it is some tricky point of grammar and you want to really 
make sure you write a careful account of your hard-earned understanding 
so you don't forget next time!!!

Lots of node-list processing :-)

Warm regards

Graham

















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Re: Typographical Engineering in Context

[Idris Samawi Hamid ادريس سماوي حامد]

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On Sat, 03 Apr 2010 10:31:07 -0600, Graham Douglas  
<graham.douglas@readytext.co.uk> wrote:

> Hello Idris
>  A chapter or appendix on the fundamentals of Unicode

We plan a special topic for unicode and opentype processing. Since this is  
mkiv only, all input will be utf-8 etc.

> A (big...) chapter on typesetting Arabic  would be great
> --- I've been self-teaching/studying Arabic for a couple
> of years, time permitting. I hope one day to use ConTeXt to
> write-up my study notes --- especially the formal grammar
> which is (need I say) vast!

I have written a few chapters for a supplementary monograph on scholarly  
typesetting, with a focus on Arabic-script typography. There will  
definitely be discussions of bidi and other language issues in TE though.  
Indeed, my intention is for the book to be bidi-neutral, so all structural  
elements are to be defined abstractly. This effort itself will lead to  
improvements in mkiv's bidi model.

>  It would be great to be able to document tools whereby you could
> mark-up any Arabic word (noun, adjective verb etc) to show certain
> parts in colour or add overbraces/underbraces etc. Colouring the glyphs  
> or other ways of annotating the Arabic text to help your own documenting  
> and understanding of the rules. I'm sure you know what I mean!!

News flash: it's already there! See attached.

>  Of course, it would be impractical to cover all possibilities
> but the core task of accessing the node lists (and (maybe) by
> attributes) to introduce special effects onto the Arabic glyphs.
> Tools to access the vowelling --- e.g., colour the vowels
> or add boxes around them etc --- purely for the purposes
> of aiding understanding/memory etc.

We will have a Special Topics section for some advanced things like this.  
The focus will be the high-level interface that Context already provides  
-- including for things you have described above. But we want to provide  
the foundation for readers who want to dig into the internals and do  
advanced typographic programming as well.

>  Anything that could help students/learners of Arabic to write really  
> well typeset notes, with the Arabic text "annotated" to highlight things  
> that you want to really stress.

Sure, good idea -- can be abstracted to include other langs as well.

>  Especially if it is some tricky point of grammar and you want to really  
> make sure you write a careful account of your hard-earned understanding  
> so you don't forget next time!!!

I taught a 2-semester course on Quranic Arabic last year, and I still want  
to author a modern approach to the topic of Quranic grammar. Maybe we can  
discuss that -- yet another book project!

Best wishes
Idris
-- 
Professor Idris Samawi Hamid, Editor-in-Chief
International Journal of Shi`i Studies
Department of Philosophy
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523

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Re: Typographical Engineering in Context

[Hans Hagen]

On 3-4-2010 7:00, Idris Samawi Hamid ادريس   سماوي حامد wrote:

> News flash: it's already there! See attached.

more precisely: the mechanisms are there in mkiv to do that kind of 
coloring (already for a while) but for advanced arabic you will need 
that font to get similar results

note: there's also a paragraph optimizer that can improve arabic but as 
it uses advanced font features again you'd need the reference font

Hans

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Re: Typographical Engineering in Context

[Otared Kavian]

On 3 avr. 2010, at 19:00, Idris Samawi Hamid ادريس سماوي حامد wrote:
> News flash: it's already there! See attached.


Hi Idriss,

That's wonderful! 
Could you please tell us what font you have used and give us the font features turned on to get that kind of coloring and « kashide »? Can you send an example ConTeXt file that produces what you sent as a png file?

Best regards: OK

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Re: Typographical Engineering in Context

[Idris Samawi Hamid ادريس سماوي حامد]

On Sun, 11 Apr 2010 02:40:29 -0600, Otared Kavian <otared@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 3 avr. 2010, at 19:00, Idris Samawi Hamid ادريس سماوي حامد wrote:
>> News flash: it's already there! See attached.
>
>
> Hi Idriss,
>
> That's wonderful!

:-)

> Could you please tell us what font you have used

It's very experimental at the moment, but I hope to have a release by the  
end of this year or earlier ... still working on the details of how to  
release it etc...

> and give us the font features turned on to get that kind of coloring and  
> « kashide »?

Those are not font features, but rather a "goodies" package by Hans that  
allows one to set glyphs for coloring.

The trick in this case is that I separate the main shapes from the dots in  
the font, otherwise this won't work with any other arabic font afaik.

> Can you send an example ConTeXt file that produces what you sent as a  
> png file?

It's part of a larger file, and somewhat useless as a sample for a moment,  
but I'll contact you offlist for some discussion about it if u're  
interested.

:-)

Peace
Idris
-- 
Professor Idris Samawi Hamid, Editor-in-Chief
International Journal of Shi`i Studies
Department of Philosophy
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523

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