Since you weren't satisfied with the reply you got, here's another attempt to please you:
On Oct 21, 2009, at 8:36 AM, 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:

What do you mean "get even a minimal document formatted"? You're complaining that you don't find "current examples that actually work," yet instead of a real minimal example, you post only rants. Give us a real example of what you have tried, and someone may be able to help you.

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…

No Mkiv isn't real. For two years, we've all been part of this elaborate hoax. We pretend we're using a software that doesn't exist.

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?

TeTeX is the odd item in your list. It's a defunct TeX system that hasn't been updated in three years or so. You may have meant XeTeX. On a serious note: For 95 % of ConTeXt, it doesn't matter what engine you use. The high-level code in your document should give identical output with pdftext (= mkii), XeTeX, or the new luatex engine (= mkiv). If you need Japanese, you will probably want to use XeTeX or luatex. For the differences between mkiv and mkii, see http://wiki.contextgarden.net/MkIV_Differences

3. Having answered #2, where in the world is a reference manual!!! I mean one that actually *documents the options*.

What documentation did you read? cont-eni.pdf? The wiki? Have you looked at all the manuals available on http://www.pragma-ade.com/show-man-1.htm ? cont-eni.pdf is still the current documentation; if you want to have a brief look at options, I would recommend http://texshow.contextgarden.net/

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.

What is missing on http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Sample_documents ? There are several sample documents.


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).

Then show us a minimal example of one of these hundreds of combinations, and somebody will look at it and may have an idea. But I doubt that anybody will want to write this for you.

Thomas
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