June 2006 - dev-context - NTG Mailing Lists

Re: [NTG-context] What about dynamic documentation?
by Taco Hoekwater 20 Jul '06

20 Jul '06

Hi Jérôme, > However, this seems rather far from the pdf manuals and does not really > help a newbie as I am. Definately it could be improved. In IT, almost everything is suboptimal starting the second after it's birth. Perhaps we should continue this discussion on the developers list, dev-context(a)ntg.nl? It is likely we will spend some other mails on this subject, and perhaps it is better not to clutter the general list. Anybody willing to discuss/help out can easily subscribe to that list (even if just for a while). Is that OK? > More precisely: > > 0 - Category search is missing. It is well known that searching by > contents or by command name won't give the proper result if the search > request is not well formed a priori. > Each command should have a list of associated key words, allowing smart > navigation and filtering > For example, the sectionning commands (including toc, headers and so on) > could be gathered in one big category. That could be as simple as allowing users / viewers to attach one or two key words/categories to the current commands, I think. There can be a predefined set of those, and there will not be all that many. It could also easily be backported to the XML data. Patrick? > 1 - The examples oftenly need output to let the user really understand > the effect. > Moreover, the information available in the graphical output is more > obvious thus more efficient. Perhaps the examples could be fed through the Live ConTeXt, just like the wiki examples? > 2 - Missing code template(s) to paste into the source, copy/paste does > noot help when really needed. Of course, I can grab them from > contextgarden but it is there both hidden and not well formatted. I am not sure what you mean. > 3 - The description only concerns the command. > Each key should also have its own description. Yes. > Each predefined value should also have its own description. Also yes. (both have been discussed before but never implemented due to lack of manpower). > Then the user interface can provide a layout a la headerdoc or some kind > of rollup tooltips. > > 4 - The data storage model for a size range seems weird. The range 5pt > ... 12pt is coded with an ordered list of 3 values "5pt" '..." and > "12pt" whereas it means an unordered list of 8 values: "5pt", "6pt", > ..., "12pt". This latter data model obviously turns into a pop up button > with a list of sizes. It is even a bit weirder. "5pt ... 12pt" usually stands for "any font size that is already defined using \definebodyfont". Except on the command itself, of course. There it means: "any font size you wish to define for use in the other commands that use 5pt ... 12pt". I'm smiling as I write this :-) It really should be an abstract type, like "cd:dimension" instead of those three values. > 5 - The command variants might need specials (eg \setupinterlinespace). Yes, the current solution for that command is not very nice. But there are more than a few commands with such variant calling conventions, and it is hard to come up with a nice-looking solution. Suggestions for solutions are welcome. > 6 - Sometimes the acceptable values depend on the context (eg arguments > of \ref), it means that all the relevant information is not static and > the data model should provide some entry points. But at first glance > this is a very advanced feature which cost might be unaffordable. You mean crossover functionality with reftex/auctex style programs? Would be nice to have I assume, but hard to do portably, and not really worth the effort if it cannot be done in a portable manner. (always speaking from my point of view, of course. YMMV) > Finally, it seems that the underlying data model needs more entropy. Thermodynaics says it will probably move in the right direction, once it starts moving ;-) Cheers, Taco

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another textext distraction
by Mojca Miklavec 26 Jun '06

26 Jun '06

Hello Hans, before I forget: yes, plese remove the semicolon in \def\sometxt in meta-tex.tex if you didn't already. (Unless you see some special reason why it should be left there.) And then: while trying to convince David to drop the usage of "btex ... etex" I tried (something like) this: \startMPinclusions def something = draw textext("abc"); % guess what! draw (btex def etex) shifted (0,5mm); enddef; \stopMPinclusions \starttext \startMPcode something; \stopMPcode \stoptext But it's probably up to you to convince him about that now - I ran out of ideas. I thought that nothing could go wrong any more ;) Mojca

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sometxt vs textext
by Aditya Mahajan 25 Jun '06

25 Jun '06

Hi, How can I replace the following textext code to use sometxt? \startMPpage numeric u ; u := 1cm ; for i = 0 upto 5: dotlabel.bot(textext("$X_{" & decimal(i+1) & "}"), (i*u,0)); endfor ; \stopMPpage Also is sometxt supposed to be a replacement for textext in the long run? Thanks Aditya

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database bug
by Mojca Miklavec 23 Jun '06

23 Jun '06

On 6/19/06, Taco Hoekwater <taco(a)elvenkind.com> wrote: > Hans Hagen wrote: > >> Just a side note: I noticed the new database module already in the > >> beta, but the first Hans's fix (before Taco has touched it) introduced > >> a new "tab-bug" which hasn't been quite resolved yet. If > >> "separator=tab", it should trigger catcode change of tab to a "normal > >> letter" and use that one for separating columns. Well, indeed it seems > >> that the catcode is changed, but then I get the letter number 9 in EC > >> font (macron) instead of going to new column. > > > > so what patc is needed > > > --- m-database.tex~ 2006-06-19 16:08:51.282834397 +0200 > +++ m-database.tex 2006-06-19 16:23:12.886574121 +0200 > @@ -178,9 +178,12 @@ > {\executeifdefined > {\??ls::\csname\??ls\currentseparatedlist\c!separator\endcsname}% > {\csname\??ls\currentseparatedlist\c!separator\endcsname}}% > + \doifinstringelse{tab} > + {\getvalue{\??ls\currentseparatedlist\c!separator}} > + {\catcode`\^^I=12 }{}% > \ifx\currentlistseparator\empty\def\currentlistseparator{,}\fi} > > -\setvalue{\??ls::tab}{ } > +{\catcode`\^^I=12 \setgvalue{\??ls::tab}{ }} > \setvalue{\??ls::space}{ } > \setvalue{\??ls::comma}{,} That's slightly better, but can you please also check the following: \defineseparatedlist [CSV] [separator=comma, before=\bTABLE,after=\eTABLE, first=\bTR,last=\eTR, left=\bTD,right=\eTD] % I would expect an empty cell between "a" and "b", but the second cell starts with comma instead - I guess that it worked OK in the first version \startseparatedlist[CSV] a,,b,c d,e,f \stopseparatedlist Thanks, Mojca

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new mp feature
by Hans Hagen 19 Jun '06

19 Jun '06

Hi, In order to make sure that Mojca will not enter stress mode due to her gnuplot commitments, and also to give other textext users a way out, we now have a new feature: texts processed inside the tex run. (yet to be tested in intermediate runs, but in the future we may stick to runtime completely (experiments with persitent mp runs are pretty promissing). Attached is a test file. The interesting thing is that one can now have arbitrary content in a mp textext (different name btw). Beware: the current context is used so one needs to feed specific settings using the mp environment or else. Normally this is no big problem. I may change the name of \sometxt (not sure yet). There is some trickery involved in expanding the \sometxt and it took me a while to figure out a good way to make the text manipuletable by mp in the usual way while still keeping the real thing inside tex. It may learn you a few tricks -) I'm currently uploading the release (beta) that supports this (plus A's static graphics in disguise) Hans ----------------------------------------------------------------- Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com | www.pragma-pod.nl -----------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: [dev-context] [NTG-context] texmfstart texutil
by Taco Hoekwater 09 Jun '06

09 Jun '06

Hans, maybe you can add something to ctxtools.rb that executes system("chmod +x scripts/context/unix/stubs/*") when the current platform is not a microsoft one? I believe fixing the stubs is a part of the update process. Cheers, Taco Taco Hoekwater wrote: > > Hans van der Meer wrote: > >>For those on UNIX(-like) systems that have only texmfstart.rb enabled >>as executable (chmod a+x texmfstart.rb) this will not work as none >>the ruby scripts in the distribution seem to have their execution >>bits set. > > >>The next seems mandatory if only texmfstart is enabled: texmfstart >>ctxtools --purge > > > There is a whole bunch of shell stubs in the distribution, in > > scripts/context/stubs/unix > > but currently you always have to redo the "chmod +x" after each update > because the execution permission bit is not kept in the zip, so it > gets trashed during the unzip operation. > _______________________________________________ > ntg-context mailing list > ntg-context(a)ntg.nl > http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context

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Enviromental variables in MikTeX
by Mojca Miklavec 05 Jun '06

05 Jun '06

Hello (Hans), in MikTeX almost no environmental variables are set. Consequently some basic operations such as "ctxtools --update", "texexec --make --all", ... don't work. (ConTeXt doesn't know where to put the extracted downloaded files, where put the formats, ...) texexec does all kinds of trickery on many places, including MikTeX-dependent behaviour, but doesn't address this problem yet. If I ignore the lack of interest to support ConTeXt on the MikTeX side, some things could be improved on ConTeXt side as well. So: Would it be possible to set some basic environmental variables somewhere at the beginning, so that the "basic" functionality would be there for MikTeX as well? I tried to use the code below, but the problem is that I have no idea how to make changes to environmental variables global (the following code only changes it locally according to ruby documentation). somewhere around line 270 in kpse.rb: if Kpse.miktex? then # sets the TEXMFLOCAL according to the location of context.tex # although a bit of cheating, it should work in 99.5% cases ENV['TEXMFLOCAL'] = run("context.tex").gsub(/\/tex\/context\/base\/context.tex$/, '') end If this worked, other environmental variables could be set in a similar manner as well. (Another stupid part is that it would probably be necessary to distinguish between version 2.4 and 2.5 (which behave completely different and have different directory structure) in some parts, but that's already another story.) But at least ConTeXt (only the ruby version) now works with MikTeX 2.5. Thanks a lot, Mojca PS: one very strong reason why I currently use MikTeX is that metapost keeps crashing with the stand-alone distribution. It is sometimes very helpful to have both distros installed and use the one that works better for the particular task.

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texexec --make plain
by Mojca Miklavec 05 Jun '06

05 Jun '06

Hello Hans, In order to be able to "--make plain", four files are missing in the standalone distribution, namely tex/generic/hyphen/hyphen.tex fonts/.../manfnt.[afm|pfb|tfm] Would it make sense to add them? Morover, texexec --make plain creates a file web2c/pdfetex/pdfetex.fmt, but when running pdfetex, it expects "pdfetex.fmt" to exist. Or is plain.fmt meant to be used with texexec? Thanks, Mojca

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