Am 27.12.2009 um 16:54 schrieb Manuel P.:
> ConTeXt is a good software. I was impressed with a manual typesetted with it
> and decided to give it a try. After some small documents, despite my
> ridicously small knowledge of it I decided to use ConTeXt for my thesis. Bad
> move.
>
> ConTeXt is beautiful because it's very configurable, for the most uses
> doesn't need any external module (unlike LaTeX), and gives me more power on
> the presentation of the document. But in a few days of work I've come to
> realize that it's not suited for me and this project.
>
> I've had some unpleasant surprises:
> - Bibliography doesn't work the way it should on MKIV. Unlike MKII.
> - MKIV, unlike MKII, doesn't setup any background color:
You're wrong, MkIV supports colors by default while you have to enable it in
MkII by yourself
for backwards compatibilities. The screen value for the background key could be
used to set
a gray background where you could change the gray value with the
backgroundscreen key but real
colored backgrounds are set with 'background=color,backgroundcolor=...'. In
MkIV Hans made the
decision to break sometimes backward compatibility and one result of this was
that background=color
is no longer supported because you could use backgroundcolor.
> ----
> \setupcolors[state=start]
> \setupbackground[background=screen]
> \setupbackground[state=start]
> \def\quotebox#1#2
> {\blank
> \midaligned{\startbackground
> \quotation{\em #1} \crlf --#2
> \stopbackground}
> \blank}
> ----
>
> - the above \quotebox command, in some cases, sends pdftex and luatex (MKII
> and MKIV) to the moon with an infinite loop (100% CPU).
I guess this is a result of your own definition of the \quotebox macro which
expects a space
at the end of the command, you should write (untested) instead:
\define[2]\quotebox
{\blank
\startalignment[middle]
\startbackground
\quotation{\em#1}\crlf--#2
\stopbackground
\stopalignment
\blank}
> One reason for this is probably my very limited knowledge and experience with
> ConTeXt. It's extremely configurable, and this is a plus. But on the other
> hand if you don't know how to move, what to do, the system internals and how
> any configuration affect the typesetting, a lot of thing won't work. And
> worse, you won't know where to bump your head. I don't have time to read the
> reference manual (I've already read the excursion) because the deadline is
> too near, so I have to call defeat and go to the LaTeX camp. I've wasted days
> of work, now I can't afford more of that.
>
> It's a learning experience: don't use an "experimental" (new for me) tool for
> an important job. Stick to the tried&tested ones, and use new stuff only in a
> safe context (without a near hard deadline).
>
> Maybe, in some future, I'll take again ConTeXt and try to learn it the proper
> way. But for now, it's "fired".
>
> For your patience, time and help: thanks to all of you!
You should try to play a while with ConTeXt without such a strict and shirt
timeline as you had it this time.
Best regards,
Wolfgang
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