November 2007 - ntg-context - NTG Mailing Lists

MetaPost 1.002 announcement
by Taco Hoekwater 30 Nov '07

30 Nov '07

The MetaPost team is happy to announce a new release of MetaPost: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MetaPost 1.002 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The sources and a win32 package can be downloaded immediately from http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/metapost/ The source package should compile normally on all systems that are capable of compiling a modern web2c-based TeX distribution. The win32 package is intended for texlive or a similar web2c-based installation, and has been tested only with TeXLive 2007. These executables will *not* work for miktex, sorry. Of course, we welcome any comments (either good or bad) that you may have. Simply replying to this message is fine, but see the bottom of the message for a more formal way to report bugs and feature requests. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- What is new in version 1.002: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- * Version 1.001 introduced a memory allocation error in mpto that could result in the program looping endlessly ---------------------------------------------------------------------- What is new in version 1.001: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- * The default cmyk 'black' color now uses only black, not all four ink colors (after a discussion on the mailing list). * Some issues were reported with the new turningnumber algorithm, all known problems are now fixed. * Gábor Braun discovered that mpost did not always download the font encodings into all the created output files. * Akira Kakuto and Hartmut Henkel found some small issues in mpto regarding trailing and leading whitespace. * A fix for the 'Helvetica' entries in trfonts.map was provided by Werner Lemberg, and Michail Vidiassov supplied two extra font entries for troff.map (Symbol and ZapfDingbats). Karl Berry provided the new file troff-updmap.map, to be used by the updmap tool in texlive. * Mpost now supports web2c's --output-directory option. * Any warnings about missing fonts and characters are now always written to the terminal as well as to the log. * Now that makempx is a C program, it needed a different install line in build.sh. Also, Olaf Mersmann contributed a patch to recognize 'gmake' in build.sh * Luigi Scarso found some typing errors in the web source that prevented clean weaving of the source. * Stephan Hennig fixed a number of problems in the manual (mpman.tex) and the introduction paper (mpintro.tex). He also wrote new sections on how to preview metapost graphics and on how to use metapost graphics inside other documents. On top of that, the manual is now hypertext-aware, and fixes for a whole series of small problems have been applied. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Legal notice / license / bug reports ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MetaPost is a system for producing graphics developed by John Hobby at AT&T, based on Donald Knuth's Metafont. The MetaPost home page is http://tug.org/metapost. MetaPost and related programs are in the public domain. The MetaPost development project is currently hosted at Supelec, https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/metapost; please report bugs and request enhancements through there if possible. Alternatively, you can reach us through the <metapost(a)tug.org> mailing list as well. Have fun! Taco Hoekwater, for the MetaPost team, November 26, 2007

3 2

TeXnicCenter
by Mojca Miklavec 30 Nov '07

30 Nov '07

Hello, Is there any TeXnicCenter user on the list? Wiki page http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Configure_TeXnicCenter_for_ConTeXt only has anonymous edits, and I have no windows here at the moment o test. I have no idea how that program works. Mojca ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Sir, I have Protext installed on my machine with WinXp as OS. I have problems in getting the output. I have tried to configure TexnicCenter for Context. But whenever I try to compile my context document, I get the error message "cannot execute the command [DocOpen("%bm.pdf")][FileOpen("%bm.pdf")]". Where have I gone wrong?

2 1

Whitespace significance without verbatim
by Mike Santy 30 Nov '07

30 Nov '07

Is there an environment that preserves whitespace (like "typing"), but still processes \bf \it and other text formatting commands (unlike "typing"). Any thoughts? Cheers, Mike

3 3

Re: [NTG-context] TOC: page headers
by Jeff Smith 30 Nov '07

30 Nov '07

Hi again, Thank you again everyone for your help. The list is very helpful. I got one last question and then I promise I'll stop spamming the list for a bit. ;-) Oddly enough, the archives are very unclear on this one, and anyway what I try with the little I find doesn't work -- or I don't know how to implement it. But anyway, my problem is the following. When my TOC goes on more than one page, the page header doesn't follow. It becomes what I use much later in my document (namely, chapter number and title, pagenumber, and a thin line across the width of the page), but I don't want that. In fact, I don't want *any* page header for my TOC, but this works only on the first page. No amount of \noheaderandfooterlines, \setuphead[header=nomarking] or \setupbackgrounds[state=stop] can make the header disappear on subsequent TOC pages... :-( What do I have to do? Thanks a zillion times again! Jeff

5 10

\externalfigure advanced parameters
by Vyatcheslav Yatskovsky 29 Nov '07

29 Nov '07

Hello, Could someone please explain me advanced parameters of \externalfigure, listed in http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Using_Graphics ? What is max, and broad in Factor? And what is Preset, Preview, Repeat, and Object? Best regards, Vyatcheslav

2 1

inline-graphics and unwanted line-break
by Peter Schorsch 29 Nov '07

29 Nov '07

Hi, I have a small metapost graphic I like to use inline. But the arragement behaves a little bit "unpractically". As soon there is no character in front of the graphic context will break the line after the graphic - but as soon there is a character in front of the graphic, context does not adding a linebreak after the graphic. Does anyone know how to prevent the line-break after the graphic if the graphic is the first inline? Thanks, P. example-file: \startuseMPgraphic{zo} color schwarz ; schwarz := (.0,.0,.0) ; draw (0pt,0pt)--(0pt,8pt)--(5pt,12pt)--(10pt,8pt)--(10pt,0pt)--(0pt,0pt)--cycle withcolor schwarz ; \stopuseMPgraphic \starttext \hbox{\useMPgraphic{zo}} test text - why a line-break? How to prevent this? a \hbox{\useMPgraphic{zo}} test text - this is fine: no line-break! \stoptext

3 4

Re: [NTG-context] Datenumber
by Bart Wise 29 Nov '07

29 Nov '07

On Thursday November 29 2007, Mojca Miklavec wrote: > On Nov 27, 2007 5:49 PM, Bart Wise wrote: > > LaTeX has a package called datenumber. It basically allows you to > > several things: > > > > 1) convert a date into a number, > > What number? What's the input and what's the output? First you set the date: \setdatenumber{year}{month}{day} Example: \setdatenumber{2007}{1}{5} Internally, this sets a counter called datenumber. You print the date with \datedate. Then, to increment by a week, you would add 7 to the datenumber and set the date as follows: \addtocounter{datenumber}{7} \setdatebynumber{\thedatenumber} I made a function that increments the date: \def\IncDate{% \addtocounter{datenumber}{7}% \setdatebynumber{\thedatenumber}% }% Then, I created a table with the first column entries as follows: \datedate\IncDate \datedate\IncDate \datedate\IncDate \datedate\IncDate \datedate\IncDate ... The output would be: Friday, 5 January, 2007 Friday, 12 January, 2007 Friday, 19 January, 2007 Friday, 26 January, 2007 Friday, 2 February, 2007 This way I do not have to put in anything except the first date and dates for the whole year are calculated and printed for me. > > > 2) add and subtract from that > > number, in essence adding and subtracting days, and > > > > 3) converting a date number into a date string. > > The manual mentions this example > \date[d=17,m=11,y=2007][weekday,month,day,{, },year] > > or simply > \date[y=2007,m=11,d=27] > or > \currentdate As best as I can tell, this only sets the date. I can see of no way to add a given number of days to calculate a new date. > > > I use this package to create a yearly lesson > > schedule and various other similiar things. However, I have spent a > > considerable amount of time trying to find the same functionality in > > ConTeXt with no avail. Is there a solution for this? > > There are quite some macros in tex/context/base/core-con.tex (& > core-con.mkii) devoted to that. I didn't play with substraction yet, > but I bet there is some simple way to do it. I looked through the source code of core-con.mkii, core-con.mkiv and core-con.tex. I don't see the functionality I need already constructed. I was hoping that an existing solution existed without the need for creating new code. > > Mojca Thanks for you help. If I overlooked something, let me know. Bart

1 0

switching to Context
by Roger Mason 29 Nov '07

29 Nov '07

Hello, I'm thinking of making the switch from latex to context, indeed I'm working on my first non-trivial document as a trial. I have some questions. (1) Is it possible to do conditional compilation? I wish to use context to write lecture notes with embedded pictures. I'd like to compile the document into one form to hand out to the class (or make available on the web) and another to be used as a presentation, much like latex-beamer, with just the pictures. (2) Is it possible to convert context into plain text (i.e. strip out the formatting instructions)? This may seem eccentric but it might, with some programming, offer a means to put document content into a relational database, perhaps in paragraph chunks. Thanks, Roger

3 3

Visually replace one character by another one automatically
by Jeff Smith 28 Nov '07

28 Nov '07

Hi again everyone! I have a weird question. I sort of want to use ConTeXt to solve some of my typing laziness. :-) I explain. When typing a document, I use the normal single-quote style apostrophe ' (UTF U+0027) - the "straight" apostrophe. When typesetting the document, I want the apostrophe to appear like a comma instead. The character is the single comma quotation mark (UTF U+2019). (As both characters exist with different UTF definition , this is not a font issue.) On my computer (it's a laptop), with my keyboard language settings and all (under Ubuntu), the only apostrophe I can manage to type is the first one. From what I can understand, my French Canadian keyboard layout actually replaces the single quote key with something else more important to us -- the acute accent (no, we don't use the French azerty layout). So right now all I can do is copy-paste the right character from the Character Map... it's a bit impractical and unwieldy in the long run, so this is not a good solution. Furthermore, typing an apostrophe is second nature anyway when you've been typing since childhood -- changing such typing habit is very offputting AND it can create many mistakes. I don't want to think about it. :-) Therefore, I was wondering if there was a way to automatically replace one character with another through some TeX magic! Changing all my apostrophes in the input for single comma quotation mark when the document is compiled. Is this possible? Thanks! Jeff

4 8

Datenumber
by Bart Wise 28 Nov '07

28 Nov '07

LaTeX has a package called datenumber. It basically allows you to several things: 1) convert a date into a number, 2) add and subtract from that number, in essence adding and subtracting days, and 3) converting a date number into a date string. I use this package to create a yearly lesson schedule and various other similiar things. However, I have spent a considerable amount of time trying to find the same functionality in ConTeXt with no avail. Is there a solution for this?

3 3