December 2005 - ntg-context - NTG Mailing Lists

Need to compile individual components with proper numbering, etc.
by David Arnold 18 Dec '05

18 Dec '05

All, With the structure (posted below for completeness), I will need to compile the individual components (small chunks to post online for students with modems). I know this is possible, with say texexec section1. However, if that is section1.tex of chapter8.tex, then I will need the run to produce all of the correct numbering of examples, equations, definitions, etc. I am hoping this is possible with this structure. Comments? All, I have files: ~/IntermediateAlgebraText/book.tex ~/IntermediateAlgebraText/bookenv.tex ~/IntermediateAlgebraText/chapter1/chapter1.tex ... ~/IntermediateAlgebraText/chapter8/chapter8.tex I also have: ~/IntermediateAlgebraText/chapter1/section1.tex ~/IntermediateAlgebraText/chapter1/section2.tex ~/IntermediateAlgebraText/chapter1/section3.tex And similar files for each of the eight chapters. Here is my project file: ~/IntermediateAlgebraText/book.tex %output=pdftex \startproject book \environment bookenv \product chapter1/chapter1 \product chapter2/chapter2 \product chapter3/chapter3 \product chapter4/chapter4 \product chapter5/chapter5 \product chapter6/chapter6 \product chapter7/chapter7 \product chapter8/chapter8 \stopproject %%% Local Variables: %%% mode: conTeXt-en %%% End: Here, for example, is my ~/IntermediateAlgebraText/chapter1/chapter1.tex \startproduct chapter1 \project book \startbodymatter \chapter[chap:1]{Functions} \input zapf \component section1 \component section2 \component section3 \stopbodymatter \stopproduct %%% Local Variables: %%% mode: conTeXt-en %%% End: As an example of a section, consider ~/IntermediateAlgebraText/ chapter1/section1.tex %output=pdf \startcomponent section1 \project book \product chapter1 \section[sec:1]{The Function Concept} \input knuth \stopcomponent %%% Local Variables: %%% mode: conTeXt-en %%% End: This look OK to folks? Will I get in trouble with this plan?

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Legal Project Structure
by David Arnold 18 Dec '05

18 Dec '05

All, I have files: ~/IntermediateAlgebraText/book.tex ~/IntermediateAlgebraText/bookenv.tex ~/IntermediateAlgebraText/chapter1/chapter1.tex ... ~/IntermediateAlgebraText/chapter8/chapter8.tex I also have: ~/IntermediateAlgebraText/chapter1/section1.tex ~/IntermediateAlgebraText/chapter1/section2.tex ~/IntermediateAlgebraText/chapter1/section3.tex And similar files for each of the eight chapters. Here is my project file: ~/IntermediateAlgebraText/book.tex %output=pdftex \startproject book \environment bookenv \product chapter1/chapter1 \product chapter2/chapter2 \product chapter3/chapter3 \product chapter4/chapter4 \product chapter5/chapter5 \product chapter6/chapter6 \product chapter7/chapter7 \product chapter8/chapter8 \stopproject %%% Local Variables: %%% mode: conTeXt-en %%% End: Here, for example, is my ~/IntermediateAlgebraText/chapter1/chapter1.tex \startproduct chapter1 \project book \startbodymatter \chapter[chap:1]{Functions} \input zapf \component section1 \component section2 \component section3 \stopbodymatter \stopproduct %%% Local Variables: %%% mode: conTeXt-en %%% End: As an example of a section, consider ~/IntermediateAlgebraText/ chapter1/section1.tex %output=pdf \startcomponent section1 \project book \product chapter1 \section[sec:1]{The Function Concept} \input knuth \stopcomponent %%% Local Variables: %%% mode: conTeXt-en %%% End: This look OK to folks? Will I get in trouble with this plan?

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Story of a newbie looking for a table
by Jérôme Laurens 18 Dec '05

18 Dec '05

Hi (bis) I'd like to share my newbie experience about tables. With iPages, the ''fabulous, marvelous, amazing, simple" word processor from apple, It took me more or less half an hour to design and fill a table, with fixed width colored cells and so on. Unfortunately, once I saved the document, iPages could no longer open it anymore... :-( I then spent a pair of pair of hours (minus half an hour) to try to repair things... with no success. With ConTeXt, I spent a pair of pair of hours (minus half an hour) trying to design my table, and less than half an hour to fill it. Now the work is complete. :-) But I am not really satisfied, I feel frustrated because I have the impression that it took me too much time. It appears that neither texshow nor garden did help me. So I digged into standard Google, and it pointed me to the context mailing list archive, finally pointing me to the name of the right manual at pragma ADE. Fortunately, this up-to-date manual was online . Once, my work was complete, I understood that the Google search on context garden wiki was limited to context garden... I then found that some information I was missing about tables was on the context garden tabulate page...:-/ But I have the impression that the manuals do contain much more than available on contextgarden. So, is it possible to have the Google search engine at context garden also look into the manuals? Moreover, how do you formulate a request in standard google? Adding the "ConTeXt" key word does not lead to accurate results.

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trouble with typescripts
by Thomas A. Schmitz 18 Dec '05

18 Dec '05

Hi all, I have a specific problem with a typescriptfile that may be of general interest (the problem, not the typescript). I have collected a number of font definitions into one file and have observed that certain fonts cannot coexist. One small example: \starttypescript[greekcanonica] % font definitions \stoptypescript \starttypescript[GreekCanonica] \definetypeface[MyGreekCanonica] \stoptypescript and \starttypescript[greekcardo] % font definitions \stoptypescript \starttypescript \definetypeface[MyGreekCardo] \stoptypescript cannot be defined in the same typescriptfile. If I comment A out, B will work; it A is uncommented, ConTeXt will complain about missing font definitions for B. So I would suspect that in processing typescripts, names are somehow truncated to 9 or less characters. So these questions arise: 1. Can this be changed? (We had a similar behavior with names of modules, which was changed a while ago, I think.) 2. Is there a workaround? Is it possible to add other parameters to the \definetypeface[] line? Best Thomas

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source file for the manuals
by Masoud Salehi 17 Dec '05

17 Dec '05

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OpenType fonts
by Idris Samawi Hamid 17 Dec '05

17 Dec '05

Hi all, OpenType fonts are all the rage today. Are there any critiqes of the format, or discussions of its limitations? How many typesetting applications can actually take full advantage of opentype fonts? What are the chances that OpenType (at least some of its advanced features) will go the way of MultipleMaster fonts? The answers to these questions have a bearing on my own advanced Classical Arabic script project. For example, the ovf+ocp mechanism of Aleph seems much richer than what otf offers, so should I bother with otf at all or just stick to enriched Type1 fonts (>256 glyphs, used by LatinModern)? I may be mistaken, but it seems that the Aleph utilities need updating to take full advantage of enriched Type1 fonts (not to mention otf fonts). Right now I am still building ovf's from a series of standard type1's. Here is one possible limitation of otf (please correct me if I'm wrong): While an otf can contain an alternate glyph of a given character, it cannot tell the typesetting application that, if there is the equivalent to underfull paragraph spacing, replace the default <glyph>.1 with <glyph>.2. This sort of thing is common in, e.g. old Arabic lead-press books and in handwritten books. TeX should be capable of this, though it remains to be seen whether this should be implemented at the engine level (a la pdfetex) or at the macro level. Best Idris -- Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/

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What about dynamic documentation?
by Jérôme Laurens 16 Dec '05

16 Dec '05

Hi all, Is is extremely useful for a newbie as I am to have access to the manuals electronically. You just open the pdf and search to obtain what you need. In general, you end up with a command that you have to copy from the pdf then paste to your source file. Another solution is to use the text editor completion feature, which is available only once you know the correct command name, at least the beginning... What I am missing is a button in the pdf itself that would automagically insert the proper code in my source. To be more concrete, here is what could be done (on Mac OS X at least). 0 - Define a data model. 1 - For a reasonnable set of commands, define dedicated GUIs panels. 2 - Write a dedicated browser As there is a huge amount of "reasonnable" TeX and ConTeXt commands, it is -not- reasonnable to fine tune a dedicated GUI for each one. But with some perl I think it would be possible to turn for example the Quick References Manuals into a set of xml files, each one dedicated to its own command. If these files are just HTML forms (modulo the proper style and automagic filter), we have the GUI for free using a web browser. The communication between the browser and the text editor could come from SUBMIT. At least a "copy/paste" phase would be enough. I already have a custom web browser that can insert some text directly in a text editor (iTeXMac) It is based on Mac OS X WebKit. Which means that I will incorporate this browser directly into iTM, but this not the question so far. All this makes points 1 and 2 above acceptable IMHO. The problems come from point 0. I think a good thing would be to create a subsection of the context garden, or another wiki, gathering all the sources. The seed would come from the actual documentation with automagic scripts and people would update at will. Then people would be able to work on a local version using a web sucker. We can imagine searching facilities as well BTW, Sometimes it is necessary to have some output to understand the real effect of a command. This should enter into consideration. How does it sound?

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Small capitals for the name in m-bib
by Renaud AUBIN 16 Dec '05

16 Dec '05

Hi all, Taco, surely you're the one able to answer... I want to have last names (and "von") of the authors in small capitals in my bibliography. Since, I'm not m-bib expert, how to manage the point properly ? Taco, I'm translating a bibli-num-fr.tex and bibl-apa-fr.tex, do you want them when it's over ? Maybe is there some other french people that can check it out and improve it ? Thanks,

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New bibliography beta
by David Wooten 16 Dec '05

16 Dec '05

Greetings all, esp. Taco, I'm finally working with the new bib module, it works quite well. I've found one curiosity: I have a /defineparagraphs (semi?)-kludge in a modified bibl- file to take care of some wonky (but beautiful) layout demands. It worked perfectly in the last version: \defineparagraphs [bibpar] [n=3,before=\vskip -1.75\baselineskip,after=\vskip -1.25 \baselineskip,distance=.2em,align={hz,hanging}] \setupparagraphs [bibpar] [1] [width=1.5em] \setupparagraphs [bibpar] [2] [width=3.3em] What appears to be happening is that the "after" command no longer has any effect---regardless of its content. The "before" command works as expected. Thanks again for your time, David

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\starttyping
by Wolfgang Zillig 16 Dec '05

16 Dec '05

Hello, I wan't to typset some programming code \starttyping code \stoptyping works perfect. But is there a way to use directly the input of a file? When I use \starttyping \input file.m \stoptyping I get the line \input file.m displayed. I think there is an easy way to get this problem solved but it will not get into my head. Many thanks Wolfgang

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