Alan- Thanks for taking time to respond. However, I'm not sure how exaggerated my post was.
Believe me, I understand learning curves. I have been a LaTeX user (off and on) for almost two decades (leading to my excitement about ConTeXt, :-) ). However, in order to learn one either needs documents or mentors. It helps to have both. I also understand the complexity that comes with powerful languages. I have been writing software of various types for almost thirty years. The move from mkii to mkiv will, I'm sure, be a good thing in the end. However, I find it interesting that in your response there was not a single real answer to any of my direct questions, nor a working example of what you admit should be a "simple matter". Don't get me wrong! This is not an attack on the group or on you personally - I really do appreciate the response. I hope that others will be able to correctly fill in the rest of the "magic sauce" that makes the document work and answer my other questions. However, I believe that my original statements, which boil down to "This thing may be great, but it needs to be documented (or where is it documented?)", have been strengthened. Thanks, -Bryant -----Original Message----- From: Alan BRASLAU [mailto:alan.bras...@cea.fr] Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 1:14 AM To: ntg-context@ntg.nl Cc: Bryant Eastham Subject: Re: [NTG-context] Page Numbering Hell Dear Bryant, Your post is slightly exaggerated. The document structure that you want to produce appears to be relatively standard. Whereas, indeed, the learning curve for ConTeXt (as for TeX) can be somewhat slow, the richness and powerfulness is well worth the effort. The documentation for ConTeXt (mkii) is quite rich, although it did take me some time to get used to the presentation and style. Some of the syntax has evolved in mkiv, mostly in an effort of simplification, but also to allow some powerful new features. The documentation is (slowly) being updated, as this is a tremendous effort. But it is a necessary effort. I believe that all of us users will appreciate the updated reference manual when it is completed! A notable change between mkii and mkiv is the handling of document structure. I, too, have had a difficult time with this evolution of such a fundamental functionality and will therefore let someone more expert reply to your request with specific examples on how to tune the style, notably page numbering; it should be a simple matter. Alan % missing setups to: % 1. frontmatter pagenumbering conversion=romannumerals % 2. bodymatter pagenumbering "chapter-page" % 3. reset pagenumber for each chapter % 4. add blank pages if necessary to start chapters on odd pages. \starttext \startfrontmatter \completecontent \stopfrontmatter \startbodymatter \chapter{Chapter} \section{Section} \chapter{Chapter 2} \section{Section} \stopbodymatter \stoptext On Wednesday 21 October 2009 08:36:35 Bryant Eastham wrote: > All- > > A few days ago when I first stumbled on ConTeXt I was very, very > excited. I have some 500 pages of technical documentation that could > benefit from this, particularly since I need Japanese font support. But > it has to be real. > > I'm sorry if this sounds caustic, but after 12 hours of failed attempts > to even get a minimal document formatted I have some serious questions > for the list: > > 1. Is Mark IV real? I am only somewhat joking here - after > spending hours searching for reasonable documentation on even the most > trivial options, I am left wondering whether this is something I want to > use... > > 2. ConTeXt looks great. But what is current? Seriously, I like the > look and the support (particularly Unicode). But going over > documentation I cannot make heads or tails of what to do. Mark II? Mark > IV? TeTeX? LuaTeX? If I really want to use this, what should I use? > > 3. Having answered #2, where in the world is a reference manual!!! > I mean one that actually *documents the options*. > > 4. Having answered #3, are there any current examples that > actually work? The snippets from the mailing are great, but they are > just snippets. That doesn't help me. > > Now, to resolve my immediate issue, and just because I will not be able > to sleep well until I figure this out (yes, I am fixated on this). > > I want this document structure: > > Contents > > 1. Chapter 1-1 > > 1.1 Section 1-2 > > 2. Chapter 2 2-1 > > 2.1 Section 2-2 > > > Table of contents on page "i". > Even/odd, each chapter starts on right page. > Page number (as in 2-2) in top margin. > Mark IV, Lua document. > > I have tried hundreds of different combinations. If it cannot do this, > the I will (with sadness) move on. I'm sure that it would take someone > who understands this about 5 minutes to write (if that). > > -Bryant ___________________________________________________________________________________ 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 : http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________
