Re: [NTG-context] ConTeXt on the Mac (TexShop). Problem of a newbie

[Hans Hagen]

On 1/13/2013 11:03 PM, Meigen, Thomas wrote:


Sorry, I forget to mention. Scrivener is a very nice editor which mainly 
supports


looks like it uses some kind of xml to store the data so you can 
directly process that with context if needed


Hans


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Re: [NTG-context] ConTeXt on the Mac (TexShop). Problem of a newbie

[Meigen, Thomas]

Hi,

once again, thank you very much for your help.

@Hans

> Most of those presentation styles were used at tex user group meetings and in 
> those cases I often use new (or experimental) functionality, i.e. hooking in 
> extentions and such; in the transition from mkii to mkiv some of the hacks 
> needed in traditional tex are gone but then I need to check all those styles 
> too and I don't use them that often.

Thanks, now I understand the experimental nature of these modules. 

> The benefits of mkiv over mkii compensate the occasional issue. Also, issues 
> are often fixed quite fast and as we have a perfect update structure running 
> on the garden problems never stay long. I (and probably others) use mkiv in 
> (often unattended) production runs so it's on the average pretty useable. I 
> haven't used mkii for years.

Great, so this would be be an argument for me to use mkiv as well. 
And the very fast and helpful comments here in the Forum are very convincing. 
Thanks

> I have no clue what Scrivener is.

Sorry, I forget to mention. Scrivener is a very nice editor which mainly 
supports 
the creative part of writing and the organisation of additional material. 
The reason I mentioned it here is that it can export the text in a large variety
of formats including LaTeX. But the question about how it might cooperate with
Context might be better suited to the Scrivener Forum... ;-).


@Sietse

thanks you very much for your clarifications. These explanations are very 
helpful!

> So if it's stability you worry about, you have three options:
> * Use Mark II, solid as a rock.
> * Follow the stable Mark IVs.
> * Take a bleeding-edge beta and don't update it.


Thanks. I see, there are different options (which is always good...)

Best wishes
Thomas
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Re: [NTG-context] ConTeXt on the Mac (TexShop). Problem of a newbie

[Sietse Brouwer]

Hi Thomas,

You wrote, a good number of e-mails ago:
> But would it be possible
> to use ConTeXt without having to care about bugs in
> updated code or broken links between different modules...?

Thought I'd add a brief note to the conversation about updates and stability.

ConTeXt Mark II (can use XeTeX, pdfTeX, LuaTeX, and all those other
engines) is extraordinarily stable. Its development is frozen
(although I think bugfixes can still be requested). Because it is
written in TeX, a language that is also frozen, I think it is quite
likely that Mark II documents will still compile in 20 years. Mark II
is included in the Standalone distribution; use the `texexec` command
to compile a document with Mark II.

ConTeXt Mark IV is Hans's rewriting of ConTeXt in TeX + Lua, adding
lots of features along the way because Lua makes it so damn easy. It
requires LuaTeX.

* The beta version are mercurial; bugs are introduced and fixed all
the time. If you want to use a beta for a project, this is the usual
advice: make a separate Standalone installation for your project, and
don't update that unless you want/have to. That said: this is only
because the next update might contain a bug when you least need it,
it's not about compatibility. Hans, as far as I know, tries very hard
to not break backward compatibility.

* A stable version comes out once a year. They receive special
bug-checking attention, and because Hans dislikes breaking backward
compatibility I think you could hop from stable to stable and your
documents would still compile.

As for your third worry, modules dependency hell: this is very much a
LaTeX thing. 2 reasons:
1. Pretty much everything is already in ConTeXt itself, meaning less
external modules are needed. 2. ConTeXt is 10 years younger than
LaTeX, meaning that its design and architecture are 10 years more
modern. Specifically, LaTeX has an entire taxonomy of packages that
make package-writing easier -- key-value, loops, string operations --
and user-facing packages may depend on any number of these. ConTeXt
doesn't have this problem: everyone just depends on the core.

So if it's stability you worry about, you have three options:
* Use Mark II, solid as a rock.
* Follow the stable Mark IVs.
* Take a bleeding-edge beta and don't update it.

Good luck!

--Sietse
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Re: [NTG-context] ConTeXt on the Mac (TexShop). Problem of a newbie

[Hans Hagen]

On 1/11/2013 12:32 PM, Meigen, Thomas wrote:


But... do I really have to have a knowledge of proper TeX and Lua before
I can use ConTeXt? For me, the charme of ConTeXt had always been that
those nice documents had been prepared with rather smart code.
I dont want to write my own modules (in which case I definitely would
need to know proper TeX and Lua). I just want to use ConTeXt and
focus on the content, not on the technical background.


For most layouts no \def or whatever is needed, just some 
\setupthisorthat commands. The whole idea of context is that one uses a 
high level of abstraction while coding (although I quite often see 
violations of that). For instance, normally you will see / use no 
spacing commands in a document source but set them up in the preamble.



Sure, I am using MacTeX and TeXLive now for many years.

What attracted me to ConTeXt was the project-product-component
structure to use and re-use components. Other aspects are

- different modes (presentation, handout, manuscript)


'modes' have always been around


- poster production


A1 papersizes are supported as are layers (the way to make posters).


- nice graphics/animation via pstricks or metapost


mp is rather tightly integrated


- export to other formats (when writing articles many journals in my
field do not accept .tex-files)


depends on the format .. there is an xml export (still experimental but 
on the average good enough)



- export to epub/mobi format. I enjoy reading mobile versions of
my own texts and of the texts my students give me for review.


idem


- import from Scrivener... When writing difficult texts I noticed that
LaTeX-typesetting is often an interruption of the writing flow. After writing
some sentences I am curious to see how the text might look like, so
I typeset the text and sooner or later I am fiddling with some LaTeX
details instead of focussing on the writing process. One help had been
to use Scrivener during the writing process and using the LaTeX
typesetting for the final steps only (as a reward... ;-) ).


I have no clue what Scrivener is.


How much of this list can be accomplished with LuaTex and ConTeXt...?


Hans


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tel: 038 477 53 69 | voip: 087 875 68 74 | www.pragma-ade.com
 | www.pragma-pod.nl
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Re: [NTG-context] ConTeXt on the Mac (TexShop). Problem of a newbie

[Hans Hagen]

On 1/11/2013 11:58 AM, Meigen, Thomas wrote:


1 \usemodule[s-pre-05]


crashed for s-pre-05 and most of the other s-pre-XX modules indicates that
such crashes have nothing to do with the decision to load modules from
other users. The s-pre-XX modules are part of the standalone ConTeXt
installation, my installation was fine, but a recent update of some mkiv
component was not compatible with luatex.


Most of those presentation styles were used at tex user group meetings 
and in those cases I often use new (or experimental) functionality, i.e. 
hooking in extentions and such; in the transition from mkii to mkiv some 
of the hacks needed in traditional tex are gone but then I need to check 
all those styles too and I don't use them that often.



So what to do next? Load an earlier ConText version? Wait until this
problem is fixed? If the mkiv <-> luatex interaction is the reason for this
problem, the problems might not be restricted to some s-pre-XX
modules (that are unchanged since about two years...) ?


The benefits of mkiv over mkii compensate the occasional issue. Also, 
issues are often fixed quite fast and as we have a perfect update 
structure running on the garden problems never stay long. I (and 
probably others) use mkiv in (often unattended) production runs so it's 
on the average pretty useable. I haven't used mkii for years.


Hans


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 | www.pragma-pod.nl
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Re: [NTG-context] ConTeXt on the Mac (TexShop). Problem of a newbie

[Khaled Hosny]

You can ignore everything Keith said and you will be just fine.

Regards,
Khaled

On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 11:32:39AM +, Meigen, Thomas wrote:
> Hi Keith,
> 
> thank you for your  open comments. You exactly understood the questions
> that I am asking right now. Would it be a good idea to switch to ConTeXt?
> 
> Yes, I do not have (and I do not want to have) a deeper understanding of 
> proper TeX. Well, I have Knuth's TeXbook in my shelf, but it is simply
> a question of time. Life is too short anyway ;-)
> 
> But... do I really have to have a knowledge of proper TeX and Lua before
> I can use ConTeXt? For me, the charme of ConTeXt had always been that
> those nice documents had been prepared with rather smart code.
> I dont want to write my own modules (in which case I definitely would 
> need to know proper TeX and Lua). I just want to use ConTeXt and
> focus on the content, not on the technical background. 
> 
> Sure, I am using MacTeX and TeXLive now for many years. 
> 
> What attracted me to ConTeXt was the project-product-component 
> structure to use and re-use components. Other aspects are
> 
> - different modes (presentation, handout, manuscript)
> 
> - poster production
> 
> - nice graphics/animation via pstricks or metapost
> 
> - export to other formats (when writing articles many journals in my
> field do not accept .tex-files)
> 
> - export to epub/mobi format. I enjoy reading mobile versions of
> my own texts and of the texts my students give me for review. 
> 
> - import from Scrivener... When writing difficult texts I noticed that
> LaTeX-typesetting is often an interruption of the writing flow. After writing
> some sentences I am curious to see how the text might look like, so
> I typeset the text and sooner or later I am fiddling with some LaTeX 
> details instead of focussing on the writing process. One help had been
> to use Scrivener during the writing process and using the LaTeX 
> typesetting for the final steps only (as a reward... ;-) ).
> 
> How much of this list can be accomplished with LuaTex and ConTeXt...?
> 
> 
> Best wishes
> Thomas
> ___
> 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
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Re: [NTG-context] ConTeXt on the Mac (TexShop). Problem of a newbie

[Meigen, Thomas]

Hi Keith,

thank you for your  open comments. You exactly understood the questions
that I am asking right now. Would it be a good idea to switch to ConTeXt?

Yes, I do not have (and I do not want to have) a deeper understanding of 
proper TeX. Well, I have Knuth's TeXbook in my shelf, but it is simply
a question of time. Life is too short anyway ;-)

But... do I really have to have a knowledge of proper TeX and Lua before
I can use ConTeXt? For me, the charme of ConTeXt had always been that
those nice documents had been prepared with rather smart code.
I dont want to write my own modules (in which case I definitely would 
need to know proper TeX and Lua). I just want to use ConTeXt and
focus on the content, not on the technical background. 

Sure, I am using MacTeX and TeXLive now for many years. 

What attracted me to ConTeXt was the project-product-component 
structure to use and re-use components. Other aspects are

- different modes (presentation, handout, manuscript)

- poster production

- nice graphics/animation via pstricks or metapost

- export to other formats (when writing articles many journals in my
field do not accept .tex-files)

- export to epub/mobi format. I enjoy reading mobile versions of
my own texts and of the texts my students give me for review. 

- import from Scrivener... When writing difficult texts I noticed that
LaTeX-typesetting is often an interruption of the writing flow. After writing
some sentences I am curious to see how the text might look like, so
I typeset the text and sooner or later I am fiddling with some LaTeX 
details instead of focussing on the writing process. One help had been
to use Scrivener during the writing process and using the LaTeX 
typesetting for the final steps only (as a reward... ;-) ).

How much of this list can be accomplished with LuaTex and ConTeXt...?


Best wishes
Thomas
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Re: [NTG-context] ConTeXt on the Mac (TexShop). Problem of a newbie

[Meigen, Thomas]

Thank you very much for your clarifications!

To summarize...

1. The use of additional modules may be nice (as Sietse proposed the
complex-slides module), but ConTeXt can achieve very flexible solutions
even without these modules.

2. Although the production of slides was not the main issue of my question,
I am amazed by the step-by-step guide from Aditya. This was very helpful
and I learned a lot about ConteXt by going through all the incremental changes.
Thanks!

3. I understand that some presentation styles/modules are provided by users
and that they may have to be adapted for specific applications. At this point I
was a bit surprised that the dependencies between different modules are not
documented explicitly within the modules. E. g., when I tried to use the
"simpleslides" module with the "simpleslides-s-Boxed" layout, I did not find a
"required modules..." command that might have helped to see the problem.
This is different from the LaTeX mechanism to load required packages.
However, the reason might be that LaTeX depends much more on these
packages, so a strict mechanism is mandatory. Anyway, after you get used
to some typical modules in ConTeXt you might not miss this kind of strict 
rule...

4. The fact that my initial example starting with

> 1 \usemodule[s-pre-05]

crashed for s-pre-05 and most of the other s-pre-XX modules indicates that
such crashes have nothing to do with the decision to load modules from
other users. The s-pre-XX modules are part of the standalone ConTeXt
installation, my installation was fine, but a recent update of some mkiv
component was not compatible with luatex.

So what to do next? Load an earlier ConText version? Wait until this
problem is fixed? If the mkiv <-> luatex interaction is the reason for this
problem, the problems might not be restricted to some s-pre-XX
modules (that are unchanged since about two years...) ?


Thanks again
Thomas
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Re: [NTG-context] ConTeXt on the Mac (TexShop). Problem of a newbie

[Pavneet Arora]

Hans,

This is a most lucid explanation.  I have been waiting for this myself.

To quote the great American philosopher, Corporal Radar O'Reilly, from the 
television show of the 1970s, M*A*S*H:


Ah, Bark! [He was instructed to say Ah, Baaah! by Hawkeye Pierce]

I apologise in advance for this most peculiar and culturally specific bit of 
history.


Regards.



--

Message: 5
Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2013 12:58:43 +0100
From: Hans Hagen 
To: mailing list for ConTeXt users 
Subject: Re: [NTG-context] ConTeXt on the Mac (TexShop). Problem of a
    newbie
Message-ID: <50eeacf3.9040...@wxs.nl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

On 1/10/2013 12:19 PM, Martin Schr?der wrote:

2013/1/10 Keith J. Schultz :

I am kind of confused about the relationship between luatex and ConTeXt.


http://www.tug.org/levels.html

ConTeXt MkIV needs LuaTeX.


That's a somewhat confusing description.

(1) Context is just a format, so it should be mentioned as format.

(2) We call all instances context, i.e. we don't combine engine names
with 'context' so there is no 'pdfcontext', although one could do that.

(3) As there are language dependent user interfaces, we have more
formats (cont-en, cont-nl, ...).

(4) We use a management script to run the engine with the context
format. Reasons for this are: we need to manage multiple runs, we might
need to call intermediate programs (in mkii for instance we need to sort
indices).

(5) This also permits us to present to user with an engine independent
call to context. In mkii we had 'texexec' (on top of a more generic
script manager called texmfstart), in mkiv we have 'context' (and again
a script manager called mtxrun).

Now, to come to luatex: this project is quite related to context as it
all started in the context community. We also use context for testing
and exploring new functionality. For this we use mkiv/mkvi which is a
rewrite of context using the full potential of luatex so that we can go
beyond what traditional tex engines can do. We explicitly have chosen
for a lua + tex combination so that we don't have to hardcode solutions
in the engine (macro packages have too many conflicting demands anyway)
and are more future proof.

Given that mkii is frozen, and given that type1 fonts are sort of
obsolete (context has always been an early adopter of lm and gyre
fonts), and given that utf is the way to go (so no messing with input
and font encodings any more), and given some more reasons, in practice
users will no longer use pdftex and/or xetex but luatex. In that sense
context depends on luatex and also keep the development of that engine
going.

The philosophy of context is that by having most functionality in the
core, users can rather easy create their own styles (the average style
has not that many lines anyway). I'm always sort of puzzled when I see
remarks that context is close to plain, as I cannot see where that
conclusion comes from. The whole reason that context exists is that I
didn't want to hack around in low level style files and deal with funny
commands having @ in their names.

Hans

-
Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
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  tel: 038 477 53 69 | voip: 087 875 68 74 | www.pragma-ade.com
   | www.pragma-pod.nl
-




--
-
- Pavneet Arora

Waroc Fine Audio + Custom Home Cinema
www.waroc.com  416.937.WAROC (9276)

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Re: [NTG-context] ConTeXt on the Mac (TexShop). Problem of a newbie

[Pavneet Arora]

Thanks Aditya!

This is tremendously helpful for all of us who use ConTeXt to do our slides.

Regards.



--

Message: 2
Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2013 06:22:47 -0500 (EST)
From: Aditya Mahajan 
To: mailing list for ConTeXt users 
Subject: Re: [NTG-context] ConTeXt on the Mac (TexShop). Problem of a
newbie
Message-ID: 
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed

On Thu, 10 Jan 2013, Hans Hagen wrote:


you only need modules for special kind of functionality or rendering (like
presentations) although one can make presentations without extra modules
(just set the papersize to S6 or so)


I created an example to show how to create basic slides from scratch.

https://github.com/adityam/context-slides-example/commits/master

The first commit starts with a basic skeleton document, Each additional
commit adds new functionality (pagesetup, layout, fonts, heads, style,
bullets) and shows how to incrementally add features to a style. When I
get the time, I'll add code to show how to create a titlepage etc.

Basically, you don't need any modules for slides as creating your own
style is relatively simple

Aditya




--
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Waroc Fine Audio + Custom Home Cinema
www.waroc.com  416.937.WAROC (9276)

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Re: [NTG-context] ConTeXt on the Mac (TexShop). Problem of a newbie

[Aditya Mahajan]

On Thu, 10 Jan 2013, Aditya Mahajan wrote:


On Thu, 10 Jan 2013, Hans Hagen wrote:

you only need modules for special kind of functionality or rendering (like 
presentations) although one can make presentations without extra modules 
(just set the papersize to S6 or so)


I created an example to show how to create basic slides from scratch.

https://github.com/adityam/context-slides-example/commits/master

The first commit starts with a basic skeleton document, Each additional 
commit adds new functionality (pagesetup, layout, fonts, heads, style, 
bullets) and shows how to incrementally add features to a style. When I get 
the time, I'll add code to show how to create a titlepage etc.


Basically, you don't need any modules for slides as creating your own style 
is relatively simple


Added the code for creating titlepage as well. See the complete example 
at:


https://github.com/adityam/context-slides-example/blame/master/slides.tex

Thus, one can get a completely functional presentation style by just 
tweaking around 10 setups. The only non-trivial part of this setup is


\unprotect
\c_strc_itemgroups_spacing_mode\plusone
\protect

which is needed to get the correct vertical spacing around the second 
level of itemizations.


Aditya
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Re: [NTG-context] ConTeXt on the Mac (TexShop). Problem of a newbie

[Hans Hagen]

On 1/10/2013 11:47 AM, Keith J. Schultz wrote:


I am kind of confused about the relationship between luatex and ConTeXt.

The way I read the wikis and web sites luatex and ConTeXt are basically two
different animals. They have a common core, but two different code bases, where
the ConTeXt group doing most the work advancing the Lua code base and those
changes integrated into the LuaTeX side.


The context lua code base is independent and not part of luatex. 
However, the font related code (opentype stuff) is writen in such a way 
that it can be used in plain and latex. I could probably write much of 
the context lua code so that it can be shared and seen as an extensions 
but it will never pay of.


Hans

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Re: [NTG-context] ConTeXt on the Mac (TexShop). Problem of a newbie

[Hans Hagen]

On 1/10/2013 12:19 PM, Martin Schröder wrote:

2013/1/10 Keith J. Schultz :

I am kind of confused about the relationship between luatex and ConTeXt.


http://www.tug.org/levels.html

ConTeXt MkIV needs LuaTeX.


That's a somewhat confusing description.

(1) Context is just a format, so it should be mentioned as format.

(2) We call all instances context, i.e. we don't combine engine names 
with 'context' so there is no 'pdfcontext', although one could do that.


(3) As there are language dependent user interfaces, we have more 
formats (cont-en, cont-nl, ...).


(4) We use a management script to run the engine with the context 
format. Reasons for this are: we need to manage multiple runs, we might 
need to call intermediate programs (in mkii for instance we need to sort 
indices).


(5) This also permits us to present to user with an engine independent 
call to context. In mkii we had 'texexec' (on top of a more generic 
script manager called texmfstart), in mkiv we have 'context' (and again 
a script manager called mtxrun).


Now, to come to luatex: this project is quite related to context as it 
all started in the context community. We also use context for testing 
and exploring new functionality. For this we use mkiv/mkvi which is a 
rewrite of context using the full potential of luatex so that we can go 
beyond what traditional tex engines can do. We explicitly have chosen 
for a lua + tex combination so that we don't have to hardcode solutions 
in the engine (macro packages have too many conflicting demands anyway) 
and are more future proof.


Given that mkii is frozen, and given that type1 fonts are sort of 
obsolete (context has always been an early adopter of lm and gyre 
fonts), and given that utf is the way to go (so no messing with input 
and font encodings any more), and given some more reasons, in practice 
users will no longer use pdftex and/or xetex but luatex. In that sense 
context depends on luatex and also keep the development of that engine 
going.


The philosophy of context is that by having most functionality in the 
core, users can rather easy create their own styles (the average style 
has not that many lines anyway). I'm always sort of puzzled when I see 
remarks that context is close to plain, as I cannot see where that 
conclusion comes from. The whole reason that context exists is that I 
didn't want to hack around in low level style files and deal with funny 
commands having @ in their names.


Hans

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Re: [NTG-context] ConTeXt on the Mac (TexShop). Problem of a newbie

[Aditya Mahajan]

On Thu, 10 Jan 2013, Hans Hagen wrote:

you only need modules for special kind of functionality or rendering (like 
presentations) although one can make presentations without extra modules 
(just set the papersize to S6 or so)


I created an example to show how to create basic slides from scratch.

https://github.com/adityam/context-slides-example/commits/master

The first commit starts with a basic skeleton document, Each additional 
commit adds new functionality (pagesetup, layout, fonts, heads, style, 
bullets) and shows how to incrementally add features to a style. When I 
get the time, I'll add code to show how to create a titlepage etc.


Basically, you don't need any modules for slides as creating your own 
style is relatively simple


Aditya
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Re: [NTG-context] ConTeXt on the Mac (TexShop). Problem of a newbie

[Martin Schröder]

2013/1/10 Keith J. Schultz :
> I am kind of confused about the relationship between luatex and ConTeXt.

http://www.tug.org/levels.html

ConTeXt MkIV needs LuaTeX.

Best
   Martin
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Re: [NTG-context] ConTeXt on the Mac (TexShop). Problem of a newbie

[Keith J. Schultz]

Hi Hans,

I am kind of confused about the relationship between luatex and ConTeXt.

The way I read the wikis and web sites luatex and ConTeXt are basically two
different animals. They have a common core, but two different code bases, where
the ConTeXt group doing most the work advancing the Lua code base and those
changes integrated into the LuaTeX side. 

Your statements below would suggest things are the other way around!?

Would your care to elaborate or anybody else for that matter if this request is 
not
to OT.

Thanx in advance.

regards
Keith.
 
Am 10.01.2013 um 10:11 schrieb Hans Hagen :

> [snip, snip]
> some of the presentation styles started out a experiments and therefore can 
> have code that should be adapted if experiments have turned feature
> 
> anyhow, the transition from mkii to mkiv involves rewrites and therefore 
> there can be issues but normally they're fixed rather fast; also, updating is 
> easy (just run first-setup again); it's the price we pay for using luatex, 
> which is evolving
> 

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Re: [NTG-context] ConTeXt on the Mac (TexShop). Problem of a newbie

[Keith J. Schultz]

Hi Thomas,

In your original post you stated that stated that you have be using LaTeX for 
your work.
That would suggest to me that you are not proficient with TeX proper. ConTeXt 
runs, in my
opinion, along the lines of TeX proper. That is you need intimate knowledge of 
TeX. Furthermore,
you need a good background in ConTeXt and its use of Lua. 
These facts would have me advise you to not use ConTeXt.

Furthermore ConTeXt is a moving target. That is, it is still in development. At 
least you can 
compare it to the early days of LaTeX2e.  Things change fast, especially if you 
use the standalone,
even though it is probably the best option.

do not get me wrong ConTeXt is powerful and usable, but you really need to know 
what
you are doing and what the modules really do.

I assume I am in a similar position as you I prefer a LaTeX approach. Though 
ConText is
quite advanced and interesting, it is too TeXian for me. I follow this list 
because I am
interested to and using Lua(La)TeX. (Please ConTeXt group disregard my somewhat 
negative
opinion of ConTeXt, just is not my cup of tee!)

I noticed that you are using a MacBook Pro with OSX 10.6. My suggestion would 
be to use
MacTeX and TeXLive 2012. It is most likely to give you more mileage. 

Furthermore try out LuaLaTeX. It gives you the advantage of using what you know 
and
you can use Lua for doing things that are not that easy to do with LaTeX alone. 
Once you are
comfortable with LuaLaTeX or LuaTeX then you may want to switch to ConTeXt.

As a side note I am using a mid 2009 MacBook Pro 17" with OSX 10.8.2 and 
MacTeX/TeXLive 2012.

Hope this helps.

regards
Keith


Am 10.01.2013 um 09:13 schrieb "Meigen, Thomas" 
:

> Hello Sietse,
> 
> thank you for your proposal.
> I guess that there is not a lack of options here.
> 
> However, my problem may be simpler than I had described in the
> first place. I am not so much concerned with using a specific
> slide layout (be it s-pre-05 or some fancy simple- or complexslide
> layout), but whether I want to use ConTeXt at all...
> 

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Re: [NTG-context] ConTeXt on the Mac (TexShop). Problem of a newbie

[Hans Hagen]

On 1/10/2013 9:13 AM, Meigen, Thomas wrote:


 and as life is already complicated enough ;-), my decision
has more to do with usability and reliability than with the number
of options. I am a software developer for more than 20 years now,
so I know very well how easy it is to implement some
"bug in recently updated XYZ code" as Hans had diagnosed my
problem. But would it be possible to use ConTeXt without
having to care about bugs in updated code or broken links
between different modules...?


some of the presentation styles started out a experiments and therefore 
can have code that should be adapted if experiments have turned feature


anyhow, the transition from mkii to mkiv involves rewrites and therefore 
there can be issues but normally they're fixed rather fast; also, 
updating is easy (just run first-setup again); it's the price we pay for 
using luatex, which is evolving



So before turning to additional modules with additional questions like...

- if I use simple- or complexslide , do I need to install the 
visualcounter-module before?
- if so, is there a clear documentation of the required modules?

 I wanted to see whether a rather simple example without
any additional module would work out of the box.
Well, it did partially... ;-)


you only need modules for special kind of functionality or rendering 
(like presentations) although one can make presentations without extra 
modules (just set the papersize to S6 or so)


Hans



-
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  Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
tel: 038 477 53 69 | voip: 087 875 68 74 | www.pragma-ade.com
 | www.pragma-pod.nl
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Re: [NTG-context] ConTeXt on the Mac (TexShop). Problem of a newbie

[Meigen, Thomas]

Hello Sietse,

thank you for your proposal.
I guess that there is not a lack of options here.

However, my problem may be simpler than I had described in the
first place. I am not so much concerned with using a specific
slide layout (be it s-pre-05 or some fancy simple- or complexslide
layout), but whether I want to use ConTeXt at all...

... and as life is already complicated enough ;-), my decision
has more to do with usability and reliability than with the number
of options. I am a software developer for more than 20 years now,
so I know very well how easy it is to implement some
"bug in recently updated XYZ code" as Hans had diagnosed my
problem. But would it be possible to use ConTeXt without
having to care about bugs in updated code or broken links
between different modules...?

So before turning to additional modules with additional questions like...

- if I use simple- or complexslide , do I need to install the 
visualcounter-module before?
- if so, is there a clear documentation of the required modules?

... I wanted to see whether a rather simple example without
any additional module would work out of the box.
Well, it did partially... ;-)

Best wishes
Thomas

Am 09.01.2013 um 17:01 schrieb Sietse Brouwer:

Hello Thomas,

Just to widen your options a bit: I have greatly enjoyed using the
\complexslides module by Aditya (and co?). I've attached an example
document, which shows inter alia how easy it is to override a design
component. (The fontscheme, in this case.)

Cheers,

Sietse



PD Dr. rer. nat. Thomas Meigen
Univ.-Augenklinik Würzburg
Josef-Schneider-Str. 11
97080 Würzburg

Tel. +49-(0)931-201-20437
Fax +49-(0)931-201-20430
Email: 
t.mei...@augenklinik.uni-wuerzburg.de

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Re: [NTG-context] ConTeXt on the Mac (TexShop). Problem of a newbie

[Sietse Brouwer]

Hello Thomas,

Just to widen your options a bit: I have greatly enjoyed using the
\complexslides module by Aditya (and co?). I've attached an example
document, which shows inter alia how easy it is to override a design
component. (The fontscheme, in this case.)

Cheers,

Sietse


presentation-hand.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document


complexslides-fontscheme-sietse.tex
Description: TeX document
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Re: [NTG-context] ConTeXt on the Mac (TexShop). Problem of a newbie

[Hans Hagen]

On 1/7/2013 4:07 PM, Meigen, Thomas wrote:

> 1 \usemodule[s-pre-05]

2 \starttext
3 \TitlePage{A simple presentation}
4 \Topics{Today's talk}
5 \Topic{First item}
6 \Topic{Second item}
7 \stoptext

 ... internal(\currentlistentryinternal


look like a bug in recently updated list code so your installation si ok

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[NTG-context] ConTeXt on the Mac (TexShop). Problem of a newbie

[Meigen, Thomas]

Hi,

after using LaTeX for article writing, presentations (beamer) and posters for 
about 15 years I wanted to try ConTeXt last week. I am not sure whether I 
installed all components correctly, so I tried to compile different simple test 
files. As I don't understand the error messages, I would like to ask for help.


0. Installation

My configuration is

- Macbook Pro, OSX 10.6.8
- TexShop 2.47
- Engine: ConTeXt-MKIV.engine

I followed the instructions on

http://wiki.contextgarden.net/ConTeXt_Standalone/Mac_Installation

step by step and installed a standalone version in the folder 
/Applications/Context.



1. A simple "Hello world" example works fine!

\starttext
Hello world
\stoptext



2. A simple presentation works fine and displays
the nice black-red-gray background (see log below)

\usemodule[s-pre-03]
\starttext
\TitlePage{A simple presentation}
\Topics{Today's talk}
\Topic{First item}
\Topic{Second item}
\stoptext


3. A similarly simple presentation _does not work_
(see log below)

\usemodule[s-pre-05]
\starttext
\TitlePage{A simple presentation}
\Topics{Today's talk}
\Topic{First item}
\Topic{Second item}
\stoptext


My questions:

- What is different between s-pre-03 and s-pre-05?
- Does the error messages indicate that the installation was incomplete in some 
way...?
- The error message says "
error on line 11 in file Pres2.tex
" although the file contains only 7 lines...?


Thanks for your help
Thomas Meigen


**
Attachment 1: log-file of successful presentation "Pres1.tex"
**

mtx-context | run 1: luatex 
--fmt="/Applications/ConTeXt/tex/texmf-cache/luatex-cache/context/5fe67e0bfe781ce0dde776fb1556f32e/formats/luatex/cont-en"
 --jobname="Pres1" 
--lua="/Applications/ConTeXt/tex/texmf-cache/luatex-cache/context/5fe67e0bfe781ce0dde776fb1556f32e/formats/luatex/cont-en.lui"
 --no-parse-first-line --c:currentrun=1 --c:fulljobname="./Pres1.tex" 
--c:input="./Pres1.tex" --c:kindofrun=1 "cont-yes.mkiv"
This is LuaTeX, Version beta-0.74.0-2012122517 (rev 4541)
 \write18 enabled.
(/Applications/ConTeXt/tex/texmf-context/tex/context/base/cont-yes.mkiv

ConTeXt  ver: 2013.01.02 18:19 MKIV  fmt: 2013.1.4  int: english/english

system  > cont-new.mkiv loaded
(/Applications/ConTeXt/tex/texmf-context/tex/context/base/cont-new.mkiv
system  > beware: some patches loaded from cont-new.mkiv
)
system  > files > jobname: Pres1, input: Pres1, result: Pres1
fonts   > latin modern fonts are not preloaded
languages   > language en is active
(Pres1.tex
resolvers   > modules > loaded: 's-pre-03'
(/Applications/ConTeXt/tex/texmf-context/tex/context/base/s-pre-03.tex
resolvers   > modules > loaded: 'pre-general'
(/Applications/ConTeXt/tex/texmf-context/tex/context/base/s-pre-00.tex)
fonts   > preloading latin modern fonts (third stage)
fonts   > typescripts > unknown: library 'loc'
{/Applications/ConTeXt/tex/texmf/fonts/map/dvips/lm/lm-math.map}{/Applications/ConTeXt/tex/texmf/fonts/map/dvips/lm/lm-rm.map}{/Applications/ConTeXt/tex/texmf-context/fonts/map/pdftex/context/mkiv-base.map}
fonts   > fallback modern rm 14.4pt is loaded
colors  > rgb color space is supported
colors  > cmyk color space is supported
)
metapost> initializing instance 'metafun' using format 'metafun'
metapost> loading 'metafun': 
/Applications/ConTeXt/tex/texmf-context/metapost/context/base/metafun.mpiv, 
using method: default
backend > xmp > using file 
'/Applications/ConTeXt/tex/texmf-context/tex/context/base/lpdf-pdx.xml'
pages   > flushing realpage 1, userpage 1
structure   > sectioning > Nopic @ level 2: 0.0 -> Today's talk
pages   > flushing realpage 2, userpage 1
structure   > sectioning > Topic @ level 2: 0.1 -> First item
pages   > flushing realpage 3, userpage 2
structure   > sectioning > Topic @ level 2: 0.2 -> Second item
pages   > flushing realpage 4, userpage 3
 ) 
)
mkiv lua stats  > used config file  - 
selfautoparent:/texmf/web2c/texmfcnf.lua
mkiv lua stats  > used cache path   - 
/Applications/ConTeXt/tex/texmf-cache/luatex-cache/context/5fe67e0bfe781ce0dde776fb1556f32e
mkiv lua stats  > resource resolver - loadtime 0.008 seconds, 3 scans 
with scantime 0.164 seconds, 0 shared scans, 28 found files, scanned paths: 
/Library/Fonts /System/Library/Fonts /Users/thomasmeigen/Library