Dear All,
I am adding my (rather special) comments to all the other answers to Henning’s
original question:
I use ConTeXt mainly for longer math-heavy texts like lecture notes. Right now,
I am revising notes that I wrote in 2013 (in ConTeXt), which are revisions of
earlier notes from previous years.
I found the transition from LaTeX to ConTeXt enjoyable (or liberating), and the
lack of documentation a minor issue: In LaTeX, there is too much documentation
for my taste, and the ConTeXt mailing list and wiki have answered all my
questions faster (thanks!) than I could have solved my LaTeX issues.
In LaTeX, I used to spend most of my time finding and choosing the right
package. In ConTeXt, I spend most of my time thinking about layout
possibilities.
Sometimes I just grab a manual and read it for inspiration.
(By the way, the new Math Manual is fantastic; I have it open at all times.)
Still, I have a few recommendations for people who would like to switch:
— If someone wants to convert long LaTeX documents, it is worth learning how to
use regular expressions (AI will help with that these days). For instance, I
replace my old $ xxx $ with \im{xxx} using a simple search. Similarly,
\begin{proof} .. \end{proof} easily becomes \startproof .. \stopproof, etc
— Start with some basic setup that has environments for theorems and proofs
and your own \mathfunction definitions, and grow your documents organically.
— I learned from Aditya (thanks!) how to have environments conditionally
typeset using modes:
\definebuffer[Solution][local=yes,nested=yes]
\startmode[solution]
\definecolor[fade][r=0.1,g=.1,b=.8] % [r=0.9,g=.9,b=.9]
\defineenumeration [Solution]
[text={Solution:},
headstyle=bold,
number=no,
before={\blank\startcolor[fade]},
after={\stopcolor\blank},
style=normal,
title=no
]
\stopmode
This will cause any \startSolution ... \stopSolution to be typeset only when
the “solution” mode is enabled.
— For people who use lots of graphics, it will help to look at luametafun. I
wish I had the time to learn metapost and Lua better...
— ConTeXt offers an abundance of opportunities to structure your document by
controlling headers and margins. Of course, one doesn’t need to use any of
these features to typeset a document, but they offer so many opportunities to
make the document easier and more appealing to read. I learned only recently
that one can use descriptions to structure longer text blocks (like proofs),
for instance
\definedescription[Step][
headstyle=bold, style=normal, align=flushleft, alternative=serried,
width=fit, margin=.5cm]
And use it as in
\startStep{\quotation{\im{ (1)\Rightarrow (2)}}:}
…
\stopStep
Matthias
> On Sep 8, 2025, at 7:18 AM, Jeong Dal via ntg-context <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
> Dear Mikael,
>
>> Thanks. Indeed some are personal thought, and one might not be happy
>> with the default setup.
>
> I used the following setup for math and others in my environment file, and I
> wonder these things are still needed since many things are already done in
> the current version.
>
> \setupmathematics[autopunctuation=no, integral=nolimits]
>
> I think that it is great if you suggest a standard(?) setup for math if it
> exist.
>
>> We are eager to hear if there is anything we
>> can do to improve in general, though. It might also be if there is
>> something that needs a different setup for, say, Korean math.
>>
>
> There is no special setup for Korean math which I can tell you. Math is
> global(?) thing.
> In Korea, almost all the Math people use LaTeX because math journals in the
> world requires LaTeX file when we submit.
> I hope that more Korean mathematicians use ConTeXt, then they may have
> something to tell you. Instead, I may ask you a lot.
>
> The pioneers of Korean TeX are mathematicians, but the situation is changed a
> lot right now.
>
> Thanks for writing a nice manual of math.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Dalyoung
>
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